Contained in this paper is a summary of results developed to date for a research program sponsord by the USNRC at ORNL. Aging of the containment pressue boundary in light-water reactor plants is being addressed to understand the significant factors relating occurrence of corrosion, efficacy of inspection, and structural capacity reduction of steel ocntainments and linears of concrete containments, and to make recommendations on us eof risk models in regualtory decisions. Containment pressure boundary components are described as well as their requirements for design and construction. Current regulatory inservice inspection requirements are reviewed and a summary of containment-related degradation expeerience is presented. Current and emerging nondestructive examination techniques anda degradation assessment methodology for characterizing and quantifying the amount of damage present are described. Quantitative tools for condition assessment of aging structures using time-dependent structural reliability analysis methods to provide a framework for addressing the uncertainties attendant to aging in the decision process are provided. When this research program is completed results will provide a means to establish current and estimate future structural capacity margins of containments, and to address the significance of incidences of reported containment degradation.
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