Bus transfer practices at nuclear plants

Abstract

The dominant trend in US nuclear plants is to use sequential (break-before-make) fast bus transfers. This study indicates that there have been at least 54 bus transfer failures at US nuclear plants between 1985 and 1989. The authors analyze the lessons learned from these failures and compare the alternate designs and practices that can improve bus transfer practices in the United States. Although the current rate of bus transfer failures is not alarming it can be substantially reduced by incorporating some of the features that are described.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>