Westinghouse Electric Company, a group company of Toshiba Corporation, has announced a new Compound D – Extended Life O-ring for Westinghouse-designed reactor coolant pump seals. T
he use of new material technology that has been tested and fully qualified doubles O-ring lifetime operation from six to 12 years under regular plant operating conditions.
The Compound D O-ring will begin to be available in the autumn of 2015. Utilities using the new product no longer will be limited to performing RCP seal maintenance to replace O-rings after six years and will have the option of operating additional fuel cycles.
The company said the O-ring offers nuclear energy utility customers "greater flexibility in pump seal maintenance planning"and is the culmination of decades of experience in original equipment manufacturer design engineering and maintenance services in support of thousands of reactor fuel cycles across the globe.
Today, Westinghouse technology is used in approximately one-half of the world’s operating nuclear plants.
