Instances of flux thimble tube wear and leakage observed in operating Westinghouse designed reactors with bottom mounted instrumentation have been attributed to flow-induced vibrations in the lower internals support column area. As a result, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued Bulletin 88-09, “Thimble Tube Thinning in Westinghouse Reactors,” which instructs affected utilities to establish and implement inspection programs to periodically confirm thimble tube integrity.

The Westinghouse Solution Westinghouse is committed to bringing efficient, large-scale hydrogen production to nuclear facilities through operating plant integration and advanced reactor designs. Clean hydrogen supports societal decarbonization while yielding a significant, yet flexible revenue stream to utilities around the world. Westinghouse is positioned to be a full-scale hydrogen partner, maximizing power output, modernizing plants for long term operations and monetizing hydrogen production.

Starting with the first commercial Westinghouse-design nuclear power plants, Westinghouse has been involved in the development of generic, as well as plant specific, guidance for response to plant events. Following the Three Mile Island (TMI) accident, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued NUREG-0899, which provided requirements for utility preparation and implementation of emergency operating procedures (EOP), including development, writing and maintenance. This was followed by NUREG-1358, in which the NRC reinforced its expectations with respect to the plantspecific technical guidelines, EOP writers guide, EOP verification and validation (V&V) and EOP training. Together, these regulations comprise the plant-specific procedure generation package (PGP).

The Westinghouse Solution Nuclear power plant upratings are a timely and cost­ effective way to provide incremental electric generation. Westinghouse has successfully implemented more than 150 plant upratings, providing more than 5000 MWe of additional power generation.