Utilization of Integer Programming for Scheduling Maintenance at Nuclear Power Plants

This thesis develops a thought that naturally explores three specific motifs for solving the complexities of scheduling maintenance at Nuclear Power Plants (NPP). The first chapter of this paper will develop the initial thought around creating a schedule for a given work week, including all the various constraints inherent to this problem. Such constraints include but are not limited to personnel availability, allowable component out-of-service time, and the Plant Risk Assessment. The objective function being to minimize the total cost of worker’s compensation for that given week.

The second chapter addresses the question of whether this simple schedule can be implemented with a long time horizon as the goal. This section delves into the concept of utilizing maintenance task frequencies and extended preventive maintenance frequencies to once again minimize the objective function of cost due to compensation.

The third chapter focuses on the ability of the program to respond to adaptive circumstances. One major obstacle in running any large commercial facility is unplanned downtime of required systems or components. Simulating failures of certain components that shorten the overall allowable out-of-service time, the program will be required to still minimize the objective function while navigating these changing timelines.