Cable condition monitoring for nuclear power plants

Abstract

Analysis and Measurement Services (AMS) Corporation has been conducting two research projects focused on understanding cable aging and developing cable condition monitoring technologies for nuclear power plants. The goal of the first project is to develop a cable aging management program to correlate the aged condition of a cable with condition monitoring techniques that can identify and locate aging in the cable's polymer material as well as faults that may occur in the conductor. This project involves laboratory experiments using low and medium voltage cable types typically installed in nuclear power plants. The second project is focused on development of an integrated cable condition monitoring system for nuclear facilities. This system integrates a number of cable testing and cable condition monitoring techniques, such as time domain reflectometry (TDR), frequency domain reflectometry (FDR), inductance, capacitance, resistance (LCR), reverse TDR (RTDR), voltage, waveform acquisition, current-to-voltage (IV) for testing of nuclear instrumentation sensors, and insulation resistance (IR). The purpose of the project is to combine all proven technologies into one system to detect and pinpoint problems in cable circuits as well as cable insulation, shield, or jacket material.