ICONE12 -49273 THE OECD PIPE FAILURE DATA EXCHANGE PROJECT -DATA VALIDATION ON CANADIAN PLANTS

ABSTRACT The Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) has initiated a project to establish an international pipe failure data collection and exchange program. This OECD Pipe Failure Data Exchange (OPDE) Project has been established to encourage multilateral co-operation in the collection and analysis of data relating to pipe failure events in commercial nuclear power plants. This paper presents a brief description of the ODPE project objectives and work scope, as well as the Canadian contribution on data validation with respect to development and application of the pipe failure data collection on which OPDE is based. INTRODUCTION Piping systems are part of the most sensitive structural elements in the power plant. Therefore, the analysis of these systems and quantification of their integrity in terms of failure probability are of key importance. The failure probability of piping is influenced by the degradation mechanisms acting on it, the level of maintenance as well as the in-service inspection activities. Risk informed in-service inspections (RI ISI) are becoming the most prevalent approach in defining maintenance strategies since it is aimed at prioritizing the components for inspections within the permissible risk level, thereby avoiding unnecessary inspections. The two main factors that go into the optimization of inspection locations/components are the estimates of consequences obtained from probabilistic safety assessments (PSA) and the pipe failure probabilities