Nuclear power plant life extension： How aging affects performance of containments ＆ other structures

摘要

This paper focuses on how aging can affect performance of safety-related structures in nuclear power plant (NPP). Knowledge and assessment of impacts of aging on structures are essential to plant life extension analysis,especially performance to severe loadings such as loss-of-coolant-accidents or major seismic events. Plant life extension issues are of keen interest in countries (like the United States) which have a large,aging fleet of NPPs. This paper addresses the overlap and relationship of structure aging to severe loading performance,with particular emphasis on containment structures.