The use of maintenance indicators to evaluate the effects of maintenance programs on NPP performance and safety

Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) under commercial operation are under continuous demand to meet higher levels of performance and safety by NPP owners, regu latory authorities and the public in general. Maintenance plays an importan t role in achieving such a goal, therefore, many programs are being conduct ed in order to improve their effectiveness. A common link between these pro grams is the necessity to evaluate how maintenance affects NPP performance and safety. This paper presents the foundation of a methodology for a maint enance evaluation program based on maintenance indicators and how it is app lied to monitoring the effectiveness of the maintenance at the Cofrentes NP P. The methodology is general and might be applied in other fields of indus trial engineering, particularly in those activities which devote many resou rces to maintain plant equipment, and also in those with less but very crit ical maintenance. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.