After collaborating with EPRI, Constellation will have 680 safety-related fittings manufactured by Lokring Technology, LLC on its nuclear fleet shelves ready for use this year. The fittings—an alternative to socket-welded fittings—will reduce installation time, cost, radiation exposure and outage critical path.
Expanding Lokring Fitting Applications
Lokring’s line of mechanical fittings for connecting small-diameter piping and tubing operate successfully in marine, power, and process piping systems. The company’s products—including compression-type fittings that connect tubing and piping with no welding or grinding—previously were installed in several non-safety-related applications at nuclear power plants.
However, the fittings had not been proved compliant with Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) 10 CFR 50 Appendix B program requirements nor with the ASME NQA-1 Code requirements.
Read the ERPI Success Story: Newly Qualified Non-Welded Pipe Fittings to Save Constellation Time and Money, and Reduce Radiation Exposure.
The Success Story talks about how they worked through the process to get these products qualified and showed how they reduced radiation exposure.
