Patent Number: 
Section: claims

1. An apparatus for monitoring the maintenance of a plant equipped with various systems, the apparatus comprising:a screening module for defining the function of each of the systems and accordingly screening the systems;a classifying module for determining the importance of each of the systems and accordingly classifying the systems so that the systems can be subjected to various levels of monitoring;a performance criteria-setting module for setting performance criteria for each of the levels of monitoring;an availability data module for recording the status and hours of the unavailability of each of the systems;a reliability data module for determining whether any of the systems fails;a real-time monitoring module for monitoring the availability data module and the reliability data module and determining whether any of availability and reliability limits is reached;a performance-assessing module for receiving information from the real-time monitoring module, accordingly monitoring the trend of the function of each of the systems and correcting any ineffective activity of the maintenance based on coals of a corrective action plan; anda special monitoring module for receiving information from the performance-assessing module, executing special monitoring on any of the systems if necessary and returning the system to be monitored by the performance-assessing module if the system reaches the goals for the corrective action plan again. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the screening module operates based on a list of systems for renewal of licenses. 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the screening module screens the systems based on USNRC 10 CFR 50.65 statements b(1) and b(2). 4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the classifying module determines the importance of each of the systems according to the Probabilistic Risk Assessment method. 5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein important ones of the systems are subjected to the train-level monitoring, non-important standby ones of the systems are subjected to the system-level monitoring, and non-important active ones of the systems are subjected to the plant-level monitoring. 6. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the performance criteria for the train-level monitoring comprise criteria related to the reliability and availability. 7. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the performance criteria for the system-level monitoring comprise a criterion related to the reliability. 8. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the performance criteria for the plant-level monitoring do not comprise criteria related to the reliability and availability. 9. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the performance-assessing module sets the performance criteria according to a method comprising the steps of:calculating times and hours for which each of the systems is needed during the assessment based on the testing interval of the plant's procedures; anddetermining the frequency distribution of times of failure for each of the systems via considering the failure rate of each of the systems according to the binomial distribution, the Poisson distribution or their combination. 10. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the equipments include air-operated valves, motor-operated valves, pumps, turbines, chillers and fans. 11. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the performance criteria comprises a criterion related to reliability in term of the frequency distribution of the times of failure of 95%. 12. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reliability module produces some non-availability data. 13. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reliability data module comprises a component-relating unit, a non-functional failure-determining unit and a functional failure-determining unit. 14. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the component-relating unit builds the equipments of the systems on a flow path chart for each of the systems for preliminary determination of any failed one of the equipments. 15. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the non-functional failure-determining unit and the functional failure-determining unit help to determine whether any failed one of the equipments falls in the scope of monitoring. 16. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the real-time monitoring module constantly collects functional information and calculates the hours and times of failure of each of the systems during the assessment for tracking and comparison. 17. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the performance-assessing module executes train-level assessment, system-level assessment and plant-level assessment. 18. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the performance-assessing module gathers data for any of the systems in need of the special monitoring. 19. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the special monitoring system records corrective actions, the status of tracking, the goals for the corrective action plan and results of the monitoring of the goals.