PLANT LIFE MANAGEMENT - INTEGRITY ASSESSMENT AND

NEW DEVELOPMENTS
FOR STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS AND SAFETY SYSTEMS
Rauno Rintamaa
VTT Industrial Systems, Espoo, Finland

SUMMARY

Lifetime management of a nuclear power plant is decisively controlled by compo-

nents and equipment that degrade with time. Knowledge is needed on ageing processes
and implementing this knowledge into the lifetime assessment and hard-ware conse-
quences with regard to repeated in-service inspection, continuous monitoring, surveillance
testing and mitigating countermeasures. Significant research and development efforts on
ageing, structural integrity and lifetime management have been done to maintain the excel-
lent usage factors and to be able to continue safe and economic operation long in future.

National and international R&D collaboration is considered an important element

behind the efficient and safe performance of NPPs. In this context, networking provides an
excellent forum to create, navigate, share and integrate the knowledge and experience in
order to develop methodologies of a qualified basis needed for appropriate lifetime as-
sessments. Therefore, one of the most important issues concerns the establishment of the
Network of Excellence on Plant Life Management.

This paper gives an overview of the technical challenges in plant life management
(PLIM), and discusses some generic approaches, new developments and future trends of
structural integrity relevant to lifetime assessment of safety significant components.

A. INTRODUCTION

At present, a large number of nuclear reactors have been operating for longer time
than 20 years. Therefore, safety of these plants is of increasing concern to the European
policymakers and industry. All nuclear plant units are large investments for the owners.
They need to be operated with excellent usage factors without any significant outages due
to materials or structural integrity problems. The utilities are obviously very much inter-
ested to be able to continue safe and efficient operation long in the future. The fact that e.g.
the Finnish nuclear reactors (four units) have performed so well, is a good proof of high
technology and expertise in operation and preventive maintenance. They need to involve
the consideration of a number of factors, such as better understanding and managing mate-
rials ageing phenomena, comparison of current safety standards, the socio-political climate
and uncertainties relating to spent fuel management and decommissioning. More impor-
tantly, the optimisation of the operational conditions of aged reactors and the decision pro-
cess about plan life management (PLIM) are becoming key issues for those in charge of
plant safety and performance.

Continuous improvement strategy has been adopted to the nuclear regulation princi-
ples in some countries, e.g. in Finland. Instead of getting a licence for 30 or 40 years in a
time, the Finnish NPP's operate on shorter operation licences. Each renewal of operation
licence is based on a periodic safety review (PSR) which is performed in a period of ten
years. The regulatory body requires that the utilities follow the international state of the art
and adopt all feasibly available means to maintain and improve the safety. On the other
hand, continuous improvement is also needed for effective and long term utilisation of the
primary capital investment to the plant, which is a major concern to the utility. The com-
mon interest to continuous improvements forms a good platform for co-operation between
the authority and utilities. The continuous improvement strategy has already proven its
benefits from both safety and operability points of view.

B. INTEGRITY AND AGEING ASSESSMENT - KEY ELEMENTS IN PLANT

LIFE MANAGEMENT

Plant life management is very complex multidisciplinary approach which can be un-
derstood in a different way. Therefore, a common terminology is often needed for defini-
tions of ageing terminology. IAEA has proposed basic definitions as follow; integrity is
physical state that assures the strength of a mechanical component against internal and ex-
ternal loading, ageing is general process in which characteristics of a system, structure or
component (SSC) gradually change with time or use, ageing mechanism is specific process
that gradually changes characteristics of a SSC with time or use, ageing effects are net
changes in characteristics of a SSC due to ageing, negative or positive, ageing management
is engineering, operations and maintenance action to control ageing degradation of SSCs,
life management is integration of ageing management and economic planning to optimise
the operation, maintenance and service of SSCs to maintain an acceptable level of per-
formance and safety.

Many power and process industries are currently developing preventive maintenance
and plant life management systems and programs for their own use. Consideration of plant
specific design and integrity problems support use of tailored programs and/or data bases
for plant life management. The final applications will be developed on plant type, utility,
plant or system level. However, common features can be included in the systems. The de-
velopment work, as a whole, deals with systematic and integrated approaches on ageing
and integrity assessment of components critical to safety. Knowledge is needed on relevant
ageing mechanisms and their impact on the selected components, materials performance in
reactor water environments and subjected to the operational loads, condition of the materi-
als and components, operational stressors in normal steady state operation and in tran-
sients, service history of the particular component, and general industrial experience in
similar plants. The aim is to define, how the results can be combined and applied in prac-
tice in an efficient way. The parallel disciplines shall be integrated such that quantitative
assessments on remaining safe life and failure risks are possible.

C. EXAMPLES OF SOME NEW DEVELOPMENTS

C.1 Approaches for plant life and materials ageing management

International organisations like IAEA and OECD have developed approaches, meth-
ods, guidelines and state-of-the-art reports to manage lifetime and materials ageing [Refs.
1-2]. The IAEA has developed a set of programmatic guidelines, component specific
guidelines for major NPP components important to safety, and ageing management review
guidelines. There are guidelines for data collection, record keeping and methodology for
the management of ageing of NPP components. For the implementation and review of age-
ing management programmes a systematic ageing management process and an organisa-
tional model have been produced through the activities of IAEA. The generally applicable
process has been a basis in the research efforts currently underway in Finland [Ref. 3]
 Periodic safety review (PSR) is an important tool for producing relevant input for
the plant life management programme, in particular, for the development of an integrated
safety improvement programme, including prioritising of corrective actions and making of
investment decisions. PSR can support future utility requests for plant life continuation.
PSR also improves communication between the NPP owner/operator and the regulator, and
creates a common understanding of safety issues and appropriate corrective actions impor-
tant to PLIM.

Risk-informed methodology especially on planning of in-service inspection pro-

gramme has gained more interest. The benefit of applying risk-informed in-service inspec-
tion (RI-ISI) follows with its aim to prioritise components for inspection within the per-
missible risk level, thereby avoiding unnecessary inspections and focussing inspections
areas with high risks.

C.2 Reactor pressure vessel lifetime management

The structural safety analysis of the RPV is a comprehensive process leading to a
fracture mechanics based integrity assessment. While regulators, utilities and plant manu-
factures have developed effective procedures to address this issue, a policy of continuous
development is required to ensure that safety margins are maintained for an ageing RPV.
Further the reliability of advanced techniques needs to be rigorously checked. Indeed this
has been a driving force behind the launch of different activities in European Networks
(NESC, AMES, ENIQ) [Refs 4-6].

In the scope of NESC network projects (NESC-I, NESC-II and NESC-IV) different
structural assessment procedures have been or are being developed and validated [Ref. 7].
Together, all these tests provide important benchmarks for validating procedures, for
evaluating the potential of advanced methods and for training analysts new to the field.
Network members have also benefited from the Shared Cost Actions of the European
Commission's Research Framework Programmes.

The Master Curve approach developed at VTT) represents a methodology developed

for quantitative assessment of RPV embrittlement and fracture risk. It has led to a new
standard for fracture toughness testing of ferritic steels in the transition range (ASTM
E1921-97). The use and application of the Master Curve method was considered and dis-
cussed in the Workshop in 2002 organised under FP-5 by VTT and EC

C.3. Integrated database system for managing piping integrity

To make fitness, safety and lifetime related assessments for class 1 nuclear piping,
the amount of necessary input data is considerable. At the same time it is essential that the
data is reliable and up-to-date. Often it has to be collected in a very short time. A rela-
tional database system, consisting of separate geometrical, material, loading and reference
document databases is being developed by the Finnish power company (TVO) and VTT
[Ref.3].

The system is developed to facilitate effective analyses of the piping and generation
of the associated documentation. For the sake of updating, it is very important that data is
never duplicated. Use of relational database architecture provides a possibility to share any
information without duplicating. For example, in case a load definition is changed, the sys-
tem will "know" that the subsequent strength analysis and the associated results are not
valid anymore. It is very important that subsequent analysis, like fatigue and fracture
analysis, uses up-to-date input.
 C.4. Development of Finnish practise for qualification of NDE
Reliability of non-destructive testing results has a direct influence on structural integ-
rity assessment and safety of inspected structures. Advanced technology together with
highly skilled and experienced personnel is required. NDE qualification aims to ensure that
the suitability and proper operation of equipment, methods and personnel, i.e. the whole
chain is proven. R&D work has been performed to obtain deeper insight on suitability of
different qualification samples and on critical issue in defect characterisation [Ref.3].

The development of the Finnish practise for inspection qualification was done in co-
operation with the utilities and major inspection companies. Pilot qualifications were car-
ried out connected to the in-service inspections of Finnish NPPs and also to international
round robin exercises. A document describing the structure of the qualification examina-
tion and the validity of qualification has been prepared for the Finnish Steering Committee
for inspection qualification. This document gives the general outlines of the qualification
examinations and describes the rules according which the qualification successfully per-
formed for certain inspection item can be accepted to cover other inspection items of the
same type. This practise is an important approach to reduce the number of expensive quali-
fications without reducing the reliability of the inspection.

C.5 Networking
Networking provides a good forum and powerful tool to optimise R&D on generic
issues and to establish consensus on best practices. Since 1993 the JRC of the European
Commission has been an operating agent for a family of European networks in the area of
Plant Life Management and in particular structural integrity aspects. The networks focus
on three specific areas: AMES (Ageing of Materials Evaluation and Studies, ENIQ (Euro-
pean Network for Inspection and Qualification), NESC (Network for Evaluation of Struc-
tural Components)

Since the launch the networks have been highly successful in generating top-class
R&D in structural integrity assessment for critical components in light water reactors. Be-
sides scientific and technical achievements the networks have proved to integrate frag-
mented R&D work into clearly defined single projects involving all interested parties, to
facilitate technology transfer and dissemination of information within and outside the Net-
works, and to establish the consensus to support harmonisation of procedures, practices
and eventually standards

The major outcome of the networks was presented and discussed in the International
Seminar on Networking for Effective R&D held on 22nd-23rd of September 2003 in Pet-
ten.

D. FUTURE TRENDS

The main technical issues that appears likely to be important for lifetime manage-
ment in future are to gain a better physical understanding of ageing related damage mecha-
nisms, to develop qualified methods for detection, surveillance and control of degradation
and to develop predictive models and analysis tools based on the true damage mechanisms
of the microstructure to extrapolate behaviour of components and structures.

For plant life management, analyses must show that the plant will continue to operate
within its design basis. Where a change in operation is desired there will be a need for
safety analyses to cover the new operational conditions. The future challenges need to have
an adequate knowledge of the current design basis of the plant, to have a correct picture of
the actual state of the plant and to define the analyses needed to support the operation be-
yond the design life and demonstrate that the plant will still operate within its design basis.
This requires relevant and qualified generally accepted data bases and methodologies.

PSA will be increasingly used , e.g to identify any excessive risk contributors, to
evaluate relative significance of safety issues arising from deterministic reviews and to
help in prioritising of corrective actions, and evaluate the effect of proposed plant or pro-
cedural modifications. Current ISI programmes are based on experience feedback and en-
gineering judgements through a deterministic analysis. In future, more use of probabilistic
safety analysis (PSA) is needed for planning of ageing management programmes. In addi-
tion, studies are underway for development of alternative methodologies for proposing an
ISI programme which is in compliance with the required safety level.

PSR will play an important role in future in reviewing the viability of R&D and in-
dustrial infrastructure to support safe NPP operation.

Due to the current boundary conditions, there will be less possibilities to recruit
qualified personnel with knowledge from specialised vocational education in the future. At
the European level a well defined structure for training should be defined. Currently, Euro-
course offered by a consortium of a couple of organisations covers all aspects of safety re-
lated to pressure-retaining components during operation of nuclear power plants with re-
gard to general issues.

Lifetime management being a multidisciplinary process creates a strong need to

navigate, share and integrate the existing knowledge as well as to co-ordinate the initiation
of new R&D activities in the international level. Future form of networking by exploiting
the experience of the running networks provides excellent forum for such activities. Be-
sides present activities networking should pay more emphasis on the qualification of all
technical disciplines and knowledge management important to PLIM. The initiation of the
European Commission’s ”Network of Excellence” on Plant Life and Ageing Management
in the scope of the European Research Area would be highly welcome.

E. CONCLUSIONS

The safe and reliable operation of the existing nuclear power plant has been proven
to operate beyond their original design life. That has been possible by implementing of
successful plant life management programmes. This is a challenge to operators. Life man-
agement is a set of multi-criteria decision-making process. Good decision-making requires
good practices and procedures, advanced tools, integrated data collection and management
and approved analysis methods. In general, the integration of different knowledge from
various sources is a basis for a systematic and effective life management.

Life management covers many technical and non-technical issues. Numerous ap-
proaches have been developed and proposed during the last years. Integrity and ageing
management of major mechanical and passive components and systems significant to
safety play key role in implementing plant life management. Scientific and technical R&D
work undertaken world-wide is focused on better understanding the underlying mecha-
nisms of degradation and their impact on the performance of components with accepted
safety.
 PSA is increasingly used to identify any excessive risk contributors, to evaluate rela-
tive significance of safety issues arising from deterministic reviews and to help in prioritis-
ing of corrective actions, and evaluate the effect of proposed plant or procedural modifica-
tions. It is almost worth of stating that quantitative safety or integrity assessment can only
be achieved through some probabilistic approaches in the future.

Due to retirement of many nuclear experts more emphasis is being done on the iden-
tification and storage of documentation, relevant data and expertise knowledge by applying
modern information technology.

Networking provides a good forum and powerful tool to optimise R&D on generic
issues and to establish consensus on best practices as well as in general to integrate, share
and navigate the existing knowledge in the international level. Training and qualification
of new experts as well as qualification of technical methodologies are also key elements
for network activities. Future form of networking by exploiting the experience of the run-
ning networks provides excellent forum for such activities. The initiation of the European
Commission’s ”Network of Excellence” on Plant Life and Ageing Management in the
scope of the European Research Area would be highly welcome.

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