Power Ascension Tests

If the control system meets all requirements defined in the design speeifieations, the time courses of the status variables vector x(t) achieved at the power ascension testing must be equal to those aequired in analyses provided by the manufacturer. A deficiency of this procedure is the fact that the above shown formalized notation is impossible with complex process systems and that not all status variables are measurable. 

INCREASE IE SCRUTINY OF POWER ASCENSION TEST PROGRAM... 

Stage C power ascension tests and power tests. 

M. L. McCormick-Barger, Experiment Data Report for LOFT Power Ascension Test L2-2. NUREG/CR-0492, TREE-1322, February 1979. 

The criteria for determining the adequacy of the SRS power ascension testing program for restart are described below. 

The Power. Ascension testing regime is described in Restart Test Identification Report (RTIR) 4 (Reference 3). Test procedures are under development and will be submitted to DOE for approval. This is an open item. 

Based on the above evaluation, the DOE staff concludes that WSRC has prepared an acceptable plan for the development and approval of power ascension test procedures. The exact scope of power ascension testing and the techniques to be used for the K-Reactor Restart and Power Ascension Test Program are not completely developed at this time. The staff will review the procedures developed for power ascension testing when they have been completed and made available for review. The closure of the open item specified above will be adequate to satisfy the restart criteria. 

The check of the design is performed during the power ascension stage of the commissioning by means of special tests a part of which will be evaluated from the point of view of the major control circuits quality. 

Initial fuel loading and subsequent initial criticality and power ascension to full licensed power are performed during the start-up commissioning. Prior to the initiation of these operations, the systems and conditions necessary to bring the plant into compliance with the Tech-Specs (Chapter 16 of the EDCD, Reference 10.3 must be operable and satisfied. These operations are performed in a controlled and safe manner by using test procedures that specify ... 

After the operating characteristics of the reactor have been verified by low-power testing, a power ascension programme brings the unit to its full rated power level in successive stages. At each successive stage, hold points are provided to evaluate and approve test results prior to proceeding... 

During the power ascension programme, tests are performed at various power levels as follows ... 

The Westinghouse Savannah River Corporation (WSRC), Reactor Operations Management Plan (ROMP), WSRC-RP-89-368 (Reference 1), required that a controlled, formal, and deliberate program be established for K-Reactor design testing/data control and restart/power ascension. The plan to be developed shall have the following characteristics ... 

Westinghouse Savannah River Company (WSRC) committed to developing a plan that will establish a controlled, formal, and deliberate program for K-Reactor restart and the subsequent reactor power ascension. This program will include very deliberate and controlled startup core testing relating to criticality, rod worth, temperature coefficients of reactivity, poison buildup, axial and radial power distributions. 

The staff reviewed the Startup Test Program document (Reference 1), which contains a plan for the development and approval of procedures associated with startup and power ascension for K-Reactor. The staff determined that this document was acceptable. Subsequently, WSRC issued the Startup Test Program Manual (Reference 2), which establishes procedural requirements for test scope development, test writing, test conduct, and test closeout. The staff determined that the controls contained in the STPM were, in general, satisfactory. 

WSRC, WSRC-TR-90-29-004, "RTIR 4, Power Ascension Restart Test Identification Report," April 1990. 

---