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Published: 1998

Total Pages: 16

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The US Department of Energy (DOE), in cooperation with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and US nuclear power plant utilities, is preparing a series of aging management guidelines (AMGs) for commodity types of components (e.g., heat exchangers, electrical cable and terminations, pumps). Commodities are included in this series based on their importance to continued nuclear plant operation and license renewal. The AMGs contain a detailed summary of operating history, stressors, aging mechanisms, and various types of maintenance and surveillance practices that can be combined to create an effective aging management program. Each AMG is intended for use by the systems engineers and plant maintenance staff (i.e., an AMG is intended to be a hands-on technical document rather than a licensing document). The heat exchangers AMG, published in June 1994, includes the following information of interest to nondestructive examination (NDE) personnel: aging mechanisms determined to be non-significant for all applications; aging mechanisms determined to be significant for some applications; effective conventional programs for managing aging; and effective unconventional programs for managing aging. Since the AMG on heat exchangers was published four years ago, a brief review has been conducted to identify emerging regulatory issues, if any. The results of this review and lessons learned from the collective set of AMGs are presented.