Operating experience feedback report: Reliability of safety-related steam turbine-driven standby pumps. Commercial power reactors, Volume 10

This report documents a detailed analysis of failure initiators, causes and design features for steam turbine assemblies (turbines with their related components, such as governors and valves) which are used as drivers for standby pumps in the auxiliary feedwater systems of US commercial pressurized water reactor plants, and in the high pressure coolant injection and reactor core isolation cooling systems of US commercial boiling water reactor plants. These standby pumps provide a redundant source of water to remove reactor core heat as specified in individual plant safety analysis reports. The period of review for this report was from January 1974 through December 1990 for licensee event reports (LERS) and January 1985 through December 1990 for Nuclear Plant Reliability Data System (NPRDS) failure data. This study confirmed the continuing validity of conclusions of earlier studies by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and by the US nuclear industry that the most significant factors in failures of turbine-driven standby pumps have been the failures of the turbine-drivers and their controls. Inadequate maintenance and the use of inappropriate vendor technical information were identified as significant factors which caused recurring failures