Dianoush Emami is a longtime California power consultant who provides electrical engineering expertise that boosts the safety and efficiency of power plants and transmission systems. One area of focus for Dianoush Emami is electrical penetration protection within nuclear power plants.
An electrical penetration assembly (EPA) comprises insulated electric conductors, module, aperture, and conductor seals. These ensure that electric conductors pass through a single hole within a nuclear containment structure while simultaneously delivering a pressure barrier between the containment structure’s inside and outside regions.
Each reactor within a plant may have numerous points where EPAs must be installed to feed signals through. Containment integrity is essential for preventing radiation leaks, and EPAs are rigorously built to withstand both existing and potential conditions within the reactor. Without that safety element, they can emerge as the weak point at which operational failure occurs.
Two critical elements of EPA performance are seals and interfaces. While epoxy seals are not typically an issue, the field cabling interface that is either embedded within the epoxy or used in terminating a cable is a distinct area of vulnerability.
