Getting PWR on the Line 
With the Shippingport power station scheduled to go critical 
in June, 1957, operating plans are now being firmed up. 
Duquesne Light Co.'s approach to two aspects of operation— 
cold-station 
By L. R. LOVE and G. N. OLDHAM 
Shippingport Power Station, Duquesne Light Company 
Pitlsburgh, Pennsylvania 
1—Startup Procedure* 
THe SHIPPINGPORT power station will 
be similar to conventional stations in 
that several different startup proce- 
dures will be used. These procedures 
will differ mainly in the starting point, 
with the final steps of startup being 
very similar. 
The specific procedure to be followed 
in any one startup will depend on the 
station conditions existing at the time 
of the startup, which will in turn de- 
pend on the purpose and length of the 
previous out-age. The procedure to be 
presented in this paper is the cold-sta- 
tion startup procedure, which will be 
the one of longest duration, but will be 
used only after an extended shutdown 
of the reactor. 
Initial Station Conditions 
For this particular startup, it is 
assumed that station conditions are as 
follows: 
1. All station service buses are ener- 
gized from the 138-kv network. 
2. The reactor coolant and associ- 
ated systems are completely filled with 
water at ambient temperature and at a 
pressure less than 150 psig. The water 
is of the required purity except for 
oxygen content. 
* Parts 1 and 2 of this article are based 
on papers presented by L. R. Love and G. 
M. Oldham, respectively, at the Tenth 
Annual Mechanical Engineering Conference 
on Nuclear Power Plants, Pittsburgh, Pa., 
May 1, 1956. 
3. The purification system is isolated 
and the pressurizer spray line is open. 
4. The precritical check out of reac- 
tor controls and instruméntation is 
completed. 
5. The turbine-generator is on ‘“‘mo- 
tor slow roll.” The generator shell is 
filled with hydrogen. 
6. The condensate and_boiler-feed 
systems are set up for operation with 
drum level slightly below normal and 
steam lead vents and drains open. 
7. All reactor and turbine-generator 
plant auxiliary systems are either in 
service or available for service. 
Coolant-System Warm-Up 
With these conditions established, 
the first steps in the procedure are the 
chemical treatment of the reactor cool- 
ant for oxygen removal and the initia- 
tion of the reactor coolant system 
warm-up. 
In the following procedure, several 
minor steps have been omitted for 
simplicity. 
1. The reactor coolant pumps are 
started at high speed, and coolant is 
circulated through the loops and the 
pressurizer spray circuit. 
2. The system is pressurized to 400 
psig by the charging-system pumps. 
The pressurizer heaters are energized to 
assist the reactor-coolant pumps in 
raising the coolant temperature. 
3. Reactor coolant is sampled and 
startup and personnel—are described here 
analyzed to determine its oxygen con- 
tent. The required amountsof hydra- 
zine is added to the system for oxygen 
scavenging. 
4. The coolant is then circulated for 
about 4 hr to permit the hydrazine-oxy- 
gen reaction to take place. During 
this period, the coolant pressure is 
maintained between 400 and 600 psig 
by discharging water as required. The 
coolant temperature is maintained be- 
tween 190° F and 200° F by de-energiz- 
ing the pressurizer heaters and cycling 
the coolant pumps as required. 
5. When oxygen concentration has 
been reduced to the desired level, the 
pressurizer spray-line valve is closed 
and all heaters are energized. The 
pressurizer now assumes its true func- 
tion—that of pressurizing the reactor 
coolant to prevent boiling in the core. 
From this point on, pressurizer water 
temperature should be at least 100° F 
but not more than 200° F higher than 
the coincident coolant temperature. 
The pressurizer temperature rise is 
limited to a maximum uniform rate of 
100° F/hr. 
6. The purification system is placed 
in service. This system was isolated 
previously to prevent the demineral- 
izers from removing the hydrazine from 
solution. 
7. Hydrogen is added to the reactor 
coolant so that free hydrogen is avail- 
able for scavenging the oxygen released, 
67 
