Disparities in nuclear power plant performance in the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany

Abstract

This report presents data comparing the performance of light water reactors in the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). The comparisons are made for the years 1980-1983 and include 21 Westinghouse Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs), 22 General Electric Boiling Water Reactors (BWRs) in the US; and 6 Kraftwerk Union (KWU) PWRs and 4 KWU BWRs in the FRG.

Data on capacity losses are presented in a disaggregated form for scheduled outages, forced outages, and regulatory imposed outages. Further, within the scheduled and forced outages, the data is subdivided into losses associated with the nuclear island, the balance of plant, or other causes.

The report also surveys a number of observations relating to the causes of discrepancies between the US and West Germany. These observations were obtained from interviews with executives and engineers in both nations, including people from vendors, utilities, regulators, and architect/engineers. These discussions are distilled into observations relating to national differences in the broad areas of economics and economic regulation, safety regulations, and technical and managerial differences.