The Workshop on “Commendable Practices for the Safe, Long-term Operation of Nuclear Reactors - NEA Stress Corrosion Cracking and Cable Ageing Project (SCAP)”

25-26 May 2010, Tokyo, Japan - First Announcement (updated 10 February 2010)


Introduction

Background

For regulatory authorities, it is important to verify the adequacy of ageing management methods applied by licensees, based on reliable technical evidence. In order to achieve that goal, 14 NEA member countries joined the SCAP in 2006 to share knowledge. As of June 2009, 17 countries have joined the project .

The project focuses on two important safety issues: stress corrosion cracking and degradation of cable insulation, due to their relevance for plant ageing assessments and their implications on inspection practices.

The project's goal was to establish a complete database and also a knowledge base in these fields, to perform an assessment of the data and to identify the basis for commendable practices which would help regulators and operators enhance ageing management. The final report was produced in May 2010.

It was envisaged that the project’s outcomes would be used by the member countries to evaluate how operating experience and state of the art technology are incorporated into plant operating practices, and to support regulatory authorities’ reviews of ageing management programmes.       

Objectives

The objectives of the workshop were to:

  • discuss available data and knowledge bases to support long-term operation of nuclear power plants;
  • present the data and knowledge bases from the Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC) and Cable Working Groups and identify the outcome of their work;
  • share knowledge and experience gathered on SCC and degradation of cable insulation;
  • discuss commendable practices developed within the SCAP;
  • address the needs for utilisation of the databases in the future.

Technical Programme Committee of the Workshop

The chairman of the Technical Programme Committee (TPC) was Dr. Masahide Suzuki, Deputy Director-General, Nuclear Safety Research Center, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Japan.

The members of the organising committee were: Ms. Karen Gott (SSM, Sweden, SCC working group chair), Mr. Thomas Koshy (NRC, United States, Cable working group chair), Mr. Helmut Schulz (SCAP Consultant, Germany), Mr. Masanori Kanno (JNES, Japan) and Akihiro Yamamoto (NEA).

Proceedings of the workshop

The proceedings of the workshop were published by the NEA. They are distributed free of charge to workshop participants and delegates to the CSNI.


Last reviewed: 23 October 2013