Activities of OECD/NEA in the field of integrity and ageing of components and structures

An abstract of the technical paper presented to:
20th International Conference on Structural Mechanics in Reactor Technology (SMiRT 20)
Espoo, Finland
August 9–14, 2009

Prepared by:
(1) Andrei Blahoianu and (2) Alejandro Huertac
1. Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
2. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development - Nuclear Energy Agency, Nuclear Safety Division, Paris, France

Abstract

The Integrity and Ageing of Components and Structures Working Group (IAGE) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)/Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) was established, under the Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI), to advance the current understanding of those aspects relevant to ensuring the integrity of structures, systems and components, to provide for guidance in choosing the optimal ways of dealing with challenges to the integrity of operating as well as new nuclear power plants, and to make use of an integrated approach to design, safety and plant life management.

The working group operates through three subgroups dealing with a) integrity and ageing of metal structures and components, b) integrity and ageing of concrete structures and c) seismic behaviour of components and structures.

The group operates through annual plenary meetings and technical workshops and by issuing state-of-the-art reports and topical opinion papers. Among other items, the recent and planned activities of the group include the following:

• updating of the IAGE integrated plan
• conducting a meeting of specialists on seismic hazard assessment in April, 2008 in Lyon, France, with planned publication of the proceedings
• conducting a specialist meeting on risk informed piping integrity management in June 2008, Madrid, Spain, with the planned publication of the proceedings
• publishing reports on: a) summarising the main findings and conclusions of a series of OECD/NEA workshops and extracting the seismic information most relevant to current nuclear practices; b) a decade of CSNI Activities in the Area of Ageing of Nuclear Power Plant Concrete Structures;
• discussing the worldwide implications on nuclear facilities of the July 16, 2007 Niigata-ken Chuestuoki earthquake and its effects at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear power Station, supporting a benchmark, SMART 2008, being conducted in Saclay, France, on seismic design and assessment analysis for multi-story reinforced concrete buildings subjected to torsion and nonlinear effects supporting the IAEA extra-budgetary programme on seismic safety of existing NPPs.
• conducting a specialist meeting on ageing management of thick walled concrete structures in October 2008, Prague, Czech Republic, with the planned publication of the proceedings; improving robustness assessment methodologies for structures impacted by missiles; thorough exchange of information on PTS rules / fitness for service criteria on different member countries for LTO of RPV; fatigue; plant ageing; LB LOCA redefinition / LBB break exclusion for operating and new plants; joint IAEA/NEA catalogue on nuclear facilities that have experience an earthquake.

This paper will detail some of the recent activities and products of the IAGE group with special emphasis on the metal and concrete activities since another SMiRT 20 paper will detail the activities of the seismic group.

To obtain a copy of the abstract's document, contact the CNSC. When contacting the CNSC, please provide the title and date of the abstract..