Evaluation of Nuclear Plant Cable Aging Through Condition Monitoring

Extending the lifetime of a nuclear power plant [(hereafter referred to simply as NPP)] is one of the most important concerns in the global nuclear industry. Cables are one of the long-life items that have not been considered for replacement during the design life of a NPP. To extend the cable life beyond the design life, it is first necessary to prove that the design life is too conservative compared with actual aging. Condition monitoring is useful means of evaluating the aging condition of cable. In order to simulate natural aging in a nuclear power plant. a study on accelerated aging must first be conducted. In this paper, evaluations of mechanical aging degradation for a neoprene cable jacket were performed after accelerated aging under tcontinuous and intermittent heating conditions. Contrary to general expectations, intermittent heating to the neoprene cable jacket showed low aging degradation, 50% break-elongation, and 60% indenter modulus, compared with continuous heating. With a plant maintenance period of 1 month after every 12 or 18 months operation, we can easily deduce that the life time of the cable jacket of neoprene can be extended much longer than extimated through the general EQ test. which adopts continuous accelerated aging for determining cable life. Therefore, a systematic approach that considers the actual environment conditions of the nuclear power plant is required for determining cable life.