A systematic strategy for the mitigation of the consequences of ageing processes is of major importance for the safe and economic operation of a nuclear power plants. The effect of ageing mechanisms like FAC should be detected at an early state and precautionary steps should be taken to counteract losses in component integrity.

For the lifetime management of piping and vessels, AREVA NP provides the software tool COMSY. It features a degradation model for FAC, which enables the prediction of lifetime for piping and vessels affected by wall thinning.

For the identification of system areas in which are sensitive to flow-induced corrosion mechanisms (FAC, droplet impingement erosion, cavitation), a comprehensive plant-wide strategy is applied. The tool incorporates functionalities which enable the identifi-cation of plant areas susceptible to wall thinning based on system parameters in combi-nation with material data. If a system area is identified as being susceptible to FAC, a detailed analysis of the respective system area is initiated. Based on this evaluation the inspection program can be optimized by focusing activities on degradation sensitive areas. The integrated inspection data management function ensures information feedback, i.e. the predictions are calibrated against the inspection results. This strategy is designed to provide a comprehensive, long-term surveillance of the integrity of mechanical components.

          Mr. Nopper works for AREVA GmbH as a project manager and expert on the field of plant life management, degradation assessment and inspection optimization. He is the principal developer of the COMSY software tool, which is designed to support the analytical evaluation of flow-induced corrosion mechanisms.