To remain economically competitive in the electric power market, nuclear power plants (NPPs) need to deploy innovative, cost-saving strategies while ensuring continued safe operation. The SoTeRiA Research Laboratory has been working to develop an advanced physics-of-failure model with higher spatial and temporal resolutions (using Finite Element Analysis [FEA]) and an interface methodology to couple it with the maintenance performance model under the award from the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP), Reactor Concepts Research Development and Demonstration (RCRD&D) (Award #17-12614). This research is contributing to enhanced realism when modeling (i) the impact of maintenance performance on financial performance, (ii) the impact of maintenance performance on safety, and (iii) the interconnections of safety and financial performance. Further details regarding the outcomes of this research can be found in the team publications (https://soteria.npre.illinois.edu/publications/journal-conference-papers/).
