CHECWORKS--An Integrated Software for Enhancing Personnel Safety and Reducing Corrosion Damage in Power Plants. Bindi Chexal, Ramtin Mahini, Douglas Munson and Jeff Horowitz, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Dupage Computer Applications, Inc.
Corrosion damage of hot steam and water piping systems continues to trouble power plants, both fossil and nuclear. It creates considerable plant and personnel safety concerns. In addition, it accounted for nuclear plant availability losses of approximately 5 percent during the past decade. To enhance plant safety and to reduce O&M costs, EPRI has dedicated its resources in developing CHECWORKS, an integrated software for corrosion control in plant piping and in-line equipment. The predictive technology available in CHECWORKS is valuable in planning inspections to prevent failure, evaluating mitigation options, and developing new designs to reduce the probability of piping degradation in power plants.
CHECWORKS operates under the Microsoft WindowsTM and WindowsNTTM operating systems, including workstations. Briefly, it includes the basic platform, the database structure (plant conditions, piping geometry and materials, inspection results, and a model of heat balance), and different technology modules. The database can also accommodate graphical images such as photographs and drawings. The first version of CHECWORKS was released in December 1993 and has been met with widespread acceptance by the nuclear industry in the U.S. and abroad, including Korea, Taiwan, Czech Republic, and Canada. It currently features seven technology modules: void fractions, network fluid flow, water chemistry, flow-accelerated corrosion, inspection data management, structural evaluation, and leak-before-break rates. Planned enhancements of future releases of CHECWORKS will include: cavitation damage, droplet impingement, service water corrosion, sludge transport, steam generator corrosion, boiling water reactor (BWR) component cracking, and fuel cladding corrosion.