January 2006

News

1)  Sweden Replaces Environmentally Friendly Nuclear Power by Imports from Russia

2)  Application of FRP-liners in chimneys

3)  Revision of the VGB-data sheet M213H "Coal Mills"

4)  Heinrich Mandel-Prize for Power Plant Engineering 2006

New publications

5)  VGB-TW103Ae "Analysis of Unavailability of Thermal Power Plants"

6)  VGB-TW804e "Reliability Data for Nuclear Power Plant Components - Analysis for 2004"

7)  New PSA Guideline in Germany and international exchange of PSA experiences performed by NPP operators

Dates

7th International Conference on Emissions Monitoring, February 1/2, 2006, Paris/France
http://www.mci-salons.fr/cem06/

VGB-Conference "Maintenance in Power Plants 2006" with technical Exhibition, February 15/16, 2006, Leipzig/Germany
http://www.vgb.org/Maintenance_2006.html

ISOE-International Symposium "Radiation Protection in Nuclear Facilities" including vendors exhibition, March 15 to 17, 2006, Essen/Germany
http://www.vgb.org/ISOE_2006.html

VGB-Conference "Electrical Engineering, Instrumentation and Control, Information Technology" with technical exhibition, May 9 to 11, 2006, Duesseldorf/Germany
http://www.vgb.org/e_keli_2006.html

19th International Fluidized Bed Conference 2006, May 23/24, 2006, Vienna/Austria
http://www.processeng.biz/fbc2006/

VGB-Workshop "Flue Gas Cleaning 2006", May 31 and June 1, 2006 in Nottingham/United Kingdom
http://www.vgb.org/flue_gas_2006_e.html

Information for Members

News

> 127,000 New Power Plant Capacity in Europe < The updated list of new power plants already in operation since 2005 or planned for the next years indicates that a substantial amount of new power plants will be built further on. More than 60 % of the new plants will be operated on natural gas. All utilities are called to check the data of their plants in the list. To some extent the data are not transferred to VGB completely. Please inform about further new projects or inconsistencies:
mailto:hans-joachim.meier@vgb.org

http://www.vgb.org/neubauprojekte.html

> Annual Report for Download < The VGB Annual Report 2004/2005 is available now as PDF-file for download.
http://www.vgb.org/annual_reports.html

New Abstracts of Minutes

Control and Instrumentation and IT - 20th/21th September 2005
http://www.vgb.org/kf_en_ak_lt_19.html

Electrical Equipment - 22th September 2005
http://www.vgb.org/kf_en_ak_et_19.html

Electrical Engineering, Instrumentation and Control and IT - 7th/8th November 2005
http://www.vgb.org/kf_en_fa_el_19.html

Acceptance and Control Tests - 8th April 2005
http://www.vgb.org/kf_en_ak_ak_17.html

Acceptance and Control Tests - 9th November 2005
http://www.vgb.org/kf_en_ak_ak_18.html

Biomass - 8th November 2005
http://www.vgb.org/kf_en_ak_bi_10.html

Reference Designation and Plant Documentation - 10th/11th October 2005
http://www.vgb.org/kf_en_ak_ad_14.html

Reference Designation and Plant Documentation - 17th/18th Mai 2005
http://www.vgb.org/kf_en_ak_ad_13.html

Plant Management and IT Systems - 14th September 2005
http://www.vgb.org/kf_en_ak_is_19.html

Plant Management and IT Systems - 6th/7th April 2005
http://www.vgb.org/kf_en_ak_is_18.html

Power Plant By-products - 19th October 2005
http://www.vgb.org/kf_en_ak_np_17.html

1) Sweden Replaces Environmentally Friendly Nuclear Power by Imports from Russia

The swedish industry consortium Basel will, from 2009 onwards, import 8,700 GWh of electricity per year from Russia over 15 years. This amount matches the electricity the closed-down swedish nuclear power plant Barsebeck used to produce.

Russia will produce two thirds of the exports from fossil-fired sources with the rest coming from hydro and the Leningrad nuclear power plant (Chernobyl-type).

Until today, swedish electricity used to be practically CO2-free, being produced half by hydro and half by nuclear plants only.

http://www.world-nuclear.org/nb/nb06/pdf/nb0602.pdf

2) Application of FRP-liners in chimneys

Application of FRP-liners in chimneys can also be recommended in case of wet-stack-operation (flue gas temperature: ~50 degree centigrade) and in case of an assumed accident/incident with bypass operation (flue gas temperature: ~150 degree centigrade). Here an abrupt increase in temperature is less critical than a distinct decrease of temperature. An accurate production of the liners (winding modes "wet in wet", order of flow/randomly oriented fibre mat close to surface inside for compensation for rough surfaces of the coil) with minimum inside protection layer thickness is of the essence of prevention of damages (diffusion of fume condensate in a porous chemical protective layer inside, vaporisation of humidity at high temperatures, blisters and possibly burst).

More information:
mailto:juergen.lenz@vgb.org

3) Revision of the VGB-data sheet M213H "Coal Mills"

The VGB working panel "Fuel Technology and Firing Systems" began with the revision of the data sheet for coal mills. Emphasis of the revision is as below:
- Integration of improvement measures of the coal mills revision
- Consideration of the Operation Safety Regulation and the restructuring of the rules for the accident prevention
- Updating of relevant rules e.g. "DIN standards".

http://www.vgb.org/fueltechnology_firingsystems.html

4) Heinrich Mandel-Prize for Power Plant Engineering 2006

As every year VGB-FORSCHUNGSSTIFTUNG (Research Foundation) requests your proposals for awarding the 10,000 Euro Heinrich-Mandel Prize to young engineers from practical fields of work or science. Candidates should not be older than 35 years. The prize is awarded on the occasion of the VGB Congress in Dresden. Deadline for proposals is March 31, 2006.

http://www.vgb.org/research_mandel.html

5) VGB-TW103Ae "Analysis of Unavailability of Thermal Power Plants"

The technical scientific report "Analysis of Unavailability of Thermal Power Plants" is now available for the operation decade 1995-2004 (pdf file). The report provides information about weak points of equipment and power plant systems. VGB is analysing the annual unavailability (UA analysis) in order to identify the root causes, i.e. those systems causing unavailability to be able to upgrade such weak equipment. The systems and equipment to be analysed are specified according to the KKS power plant identification system.
Further information:
mailto:hans-joachim.meier@vgb.org

The Report can be ordered online:
http://www.vgb.org/shop/product_info.php/products_id/436

6) VGB-TW804e "Reliability Data for Nuclear Power Plant Components - Analysis for 2004"

The aim of the report is to provide reliability data that can be used in ongoing and future probabilistic safety analyses (PSA)conducted by the owners/operators of nuclear power plants. The Centralized Reliability and Events Database (ZEDB) gathers and analyzes operating experience gained at a large number of nuclear power plants. The ZEDB use the two-stage Bayesian models to calculate plant-specific and generic reliability data. The report includes the general descriptions of ZEDB database and methodology of analysis as well as the results of analysis. The data tables consist of three parts: a characterization of the component population, a list of the determined generic values, and a list of the determined plant-specific values.
The German edition of this report was published with product number VGB-TW804.
Further information:
http://www.vgb.org/zedb_publications.html

The Report can be ordered online:
http://www.vgb.org/shop/product_info.php/products_id/437

7) New PSA Guideline in Germany and international exchange of PSA experiences performed by NPP operators

The PSA Guideline about the accomplishment of "Periodic Safety Review according to the article 19a of the Atomic Energy Act - Guidelines about Probabilistic Safety Assessment" (PSA) for nuclear power plants modified by BMU (Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety) was published in the "Bundesanzeiger" (i.e. organ of German federal supervisory authority) on November 3, 2005. Additional, the technical references "Methods of PSA in NPP" and "Data for PSA in NPP" were updated by BfS (Federal Office for Radiation Protection) and published by publishing company "Wirtschaftsverlag NW" (http://www.nw-verlag.de). In order that the official PSA Guideline and the related references published in 1996 or 1997 were adapted and the included scope of analysis was extended.

The requirements specified in the guideline are also reflected in the international exchange of experiences performed by the nuclear power plant operators. In this context the activities of the VGB working panel "PSA Coordinators" are focused on the integration of PSA experts from the NPP in the Netherlands and Switzerland as well as on the pushed co-operation with the Nordic PSA Group (NPSAG) in that are associated PSA experts from Sweden and Finland. This co-operation was agreed during a Start-up Meeting held in January 2006. The topics "PSA Level 2" and "Quantification of common caused failure" (CCF) were discussed in the framework of this event. The PSA Level 2 is included in the mentioned PSA Guideline. The importance of CCF is caused by its share in the PSA result.

More information:
mailto:andre.seidel@vgb.org