Innovative Utilization of Smart Instrumentation at a Nuclear Power Plant

Jeff Kerker, Terry Koehler, Eddie Saab, Bruce Power Design Team Leader Lakeside Process Controls Project Technical Lead Lakeside Process Controls Account Manager

Introduction
HX5 History Basic System Operating Philosophy Project Scope Design Issues Control Retrofit Challenges and Solutions Results Achieved Summary Lessons Learned

HX5 History
Steam hammers discovered and documented in HX5 drain lines. Station Condition Record (SCRs) were raised and Operating Experience (OPEX) was reviewed for similar events. Various fixes applied that did not really address the root causes (e.g. boosters, time delay relays, valve changes, diffuser mods etc.) Several steam hammer mechanisms were occurring, at various system conditions, that confused the investigations.

Basic Operating Philosophy

P&ID Sketch for HP FW Heater Circuit

Project Scope
Remove inverted loop in HX5 drains lines Upgrade HX5 level control system identified as a contributing factor to various steam hammers. Maintain independent, hard-wired turbine water induction protection. (e.g. level switches) Operator actions to be minimized. HX5 to operate as per original design. Modification required for the next unit outage. (7 months)

Design Issues
Where and how to bore the hole between the reheater drains pit and the condenser pit to eliminate the inverted loop?

Design Issues
Original Piping Configuration
Bruce A
45 pipe el. 592-0 pipe el. 582-3 36 Condensate Line Condenser Pit el. 578 Pit Bottom el. 571 Condenser CD1 35 28 HP Heater Drain Line 12 dia. Ground Floor el. 591 Condensate Trench pipe el. 582-4 pipe el. 583 35 pipe el. 592-6 C L HP Heater el. 595-3

Bruce B
40 pipe el. 593-6 pipe el. 585-3 Condenser CD1 60 HP Heater Drain Line in shallow trench pipe el. 589-10 HP Heater Drain Line 16 dia Condenser Pit el. 578 Pit Bottom el. 571 pipe el. 585 35 Ground Floor el. 591 C L HP Heater el. 595-3

Design Issues
New Configuration

LCV relocated to East wall of CD1 Condenser CD1

62 15 Condensate Line Trench 36 Condensate Line

37 C L pipe el. 583

HP Heater el. 595-3

Condenser Pit el. 578

HP Heater Drains Line reduced in size from 16 to 12 dia. Pit Bottom el. 571

Tunnel bored for relocated Drains Line

Design Issues
Where and how to bore the hole between the reheater drains pit and the condenser pit to eliminate the inverted loop? The drains line contains saturated water at low power conditions. How do we deal with smaller secondary steam hammers caused by steam bubble formation and collapse?

Solution
Significantly reduce size of possible steam bubble by:
Reducing line length Reducing line diameter Continuous upward sloping line

Design the line to withstand 45,000 lbf steam hammer at all locations.

Fused Pipe Support

Design Issues
Where and how to bore the hole between the reheater drains pit and the condenser pit to eliminate the inverted loop? The drains line contains saturated water at low power conditions. How do we deal with smaller secondary steam hammers caused by steam bubble formation and collapse? Upgrade pneumatic controls to Smart electronic.

Control Retrofit Challenges

Challenges 1. Analog and existing safety controls separate yet integrated
Valves to integrate with existing safety logic from existing level switches / pump starters Only one wire pair to be run from controller to control valves Controller required to sense the state of the safety logic circuits to ensure bumpless transfer and avoid fast transients which could cause water hammer

2. Hot commissioning time extremely limited one try only

Control Retrofit Solution

Solution
1. Smart utilization of Smart Equipment
Deaerator and Dump Valves
New valves have DVC 6000PD, integrated solenoids and junction box On loss of power to the solenoid, positioner air supply is blocked and actuator air bled to achieve fail position Through HART signal (3rd variable configured for supply pressure), trip of solenoid can be detected by controller enclosure equipment Allows for controller tracking mode to be engaged and disengaged based on the state of the solenoid to avoid reset windup and unbalanced transfer Smart positioner also allows position feedback and online valve diagnostics (Performance Diagnostics)
Old DA Valve

New DA Valve

Control Retrofit Solution

Solution
2. Smart utilization of Smart Equipment A E B C D
D. E. B. C. Controller Enclosure A. ABB Micromod MC53000B Dual Loop Controller
Had internal software already verified by Bruce Power to meet the requirements of CATIII Was used in the control room and hence operators were familiar with operation

Valve Position Indicators Rosemount 333U Triloops

Used to extract HART signals for valve position and positioner air supply pressure

MC53000 Analog Expansion Board

Used to receive analog signals of positioner air supply pressure

Line Break Detection LEDs

Control Retrofit Solution

Solution
3. Hardware in-the-loop Simulation
Complete hardware (all valves and controller enclosure) in the loop simulation executed utilizing a high fidelity process model Valve solenoids actuated by plant trip logic also simulated Simulation used to verify individual components worked correctly together to satisfy the process requirements Simulation was made an integral part of the Factory Acceptance test and ISO Quality Program Simulation used to test response to expected plant events (DA pump starts / switches, etc.) and abnormal events (pump failures / single bank operation, etc.)

Control Retrofit Solution

Simulation

HP Feedwater Heater DA Pump Start-up

Val ve Position Command (% Open) 60 50 40 30

Actual
11

DA Valve Position Command Dump Valve Position Command HX5B Level

9 7 5 3

20 10 0 3:03:36 PM

1 -1 -3 3:10:48 PM

Simulation Allowed for control strategy tuning and testing in a safe environment Predicted many actual cases which were abnormal conditions which could not be field tested Predicted 5 minutes to stabilization on deaerator pump start Successful prediction of events tested in commissioning give confidence that predictions of behaviour under abnormal events are similarly accurate

Level (inches above NWL)

3:04:19 PM

3:05:02 3:05:46 PM PM

3:06:29 PM

3:07:12 PM

3:07:55 PM

3:08:38 PM

3:09:22 PM

3:10:05 PM

Results Achieved

7 months from design to implementation

Results Achieved
Tunnels were bored, old piping was removed, new piping installed, control system installed and cold commissioned completed in 28 days. Unit ran up with HX5A and HX5B in service with no level alarms or transients. Only operator action required was to turn on the drains pumps. Small system disturbances occurred that were later corrected with minor control changes and modified system line-up. The next unit start-up confirmed that these changes solved the problem.