A DECISION-SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT OF A BOILING-WATER REACTOR POWER-PLANT

This article reports the concept and development of a prototype expert system to serve as a decision support tool for maintenance of boiling -water reactor (BWR) nuclear power plants. The code of the expert syst em makes use of the database derived from the two BWR units operated b y the Pennsylvania Power and Light Company in Berwick, Pennsylvania. T he operations and maintenance information from a large number of plant equipment and subsystems that must be available for emergency conditi ons and in the event of an accident is stored in the database of the e xpert system. The ultimate goal of this decision support tool is to id entify the relevant Technical Specifications and management rules for shutting down any one of the plant subsystems or removing a component from service to support maintenance.