Control of the safe operating period of equipment and pipelines in reactor facilities which are in operation or under construction

The basic assumptions for ensuring safe operation of the components of nuclear facilities, based on controlling service lifetime characteristics, are presented. It is shown up for the Du300 RBMK-1000 pipes, which were made of corrosion-resistant austenitic steel, that this technology can be used effectively in operating power generating units. The complex of measures, developed and validated in the last few years, for monitoring and assessing the technical state of weld seams in pipelines, using the safety concepts “leak before rupture” and “prevention of failure” as well as methods for suppressing the proneness of weld seams to form cracks by the corrosion cracking method under stress, has made possible not only safe operation of Du300 pipelines but it is also a basis for optimizing the volumes and periodicity of operational nondestructive monitoring. __________ Translated from Atomnaya énergiya,Vol. 103, No. 1, pp. 61–65, July, 2007.