Assessment and management of ageing of major nuclear power plant components important to safety

Details the current practices for the assessment and management of the ageing of nuclear power plant steam generators. The report emphasizes safety and engineering aspects and provides information on current inspection, monitoring and maintenance practices for managing the ageing of steam generators.

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At present there are over four hundred and forty operational nuclear power plants (NPPs) in IAEA Member States. With the ageing degradation of the systems, the structures of components during their operational life must be effectively managed in order to preserve the service life of the plant. From the safety perspective, this means controlling, within acceptable limits, the ageing degradation and wear-out of plant components so that adequate safety margins remain, i.e. integrity and functional capability in excess of normal operating requirements. This IAEA-TECDOC is one in a series of reports on the assessment and management of ageing of the major NPP components important to safety. The objective of this report is to update and supersede IAEA-TECDOC-981 in order to provide current ageing management guidance for PWR, WWER and CANDU steam generators to all involved in the operation and regulation of nuclear power plants.