Environmental Qualification Process at Nuclear Power Plants
29 September 2008
Solvina currently takes part in the environmental qualification process at nuclear power plants. The ongoing project deals with the aging of different components. Aging is an issue that is very important in predicting the lifetime of components in any industry.
Aging could be, for example, of a thermal, radiative or mechanical nature.
In many cases, old equipment, which is still in use, is not qualified according to the IEEE 323-74 standard - a standard that is concerned with the issue of aging. Nowadays, the requirement from authorities is that equipment should be qualified and tested after accelerated aging. The aim of the current work is to investigate if components inside nuclear power plants are qualified according to this standard.
Recommendations are issued for components that are not correctly qualified.
