Established in 2002 by certain member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the OECD Pipe Failure Data Exchange (OPDE) Project has produced a major database on the piping service experience applicable to commercial nuclear power plants. The project is operated under the umbrella of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and organizations producing or regulating more than 80% of nuclear energy generation worldwide are contributing data to the OPDE Project. The Project considers pipe failure data including service-induced wall thinning, part through-wall crack, pinhole leak, leak, and rupture/severance (events involving large through-wall flow rates up to and beyond the make-up capacity of engineered safeguards systems). The part through-wall events include degradation in excess of code allowable for pipe wall thinning or crack depth. OPDE also addresses such degradation that could have generic implications regarding the reliability of in-service inspection. At the end of the first term (2002-2005) the project database included 3,547 records of pipe failure affecting ASME Code Class 1 through 3 and non-Code (non safety-related) piping. This paper summarizes the unique data quality considerations that are associated with piping component reliability. It also gives an overview of the database structure and includes a high level presentation of selected aspects of the current database content.
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