Survey of Existing Practices and Status of Benchmark Work
NEA CSNI Working Group on Integrity and Ageing of Components and Structures (WGIAGE) has the main mission to advance the current understanding of those aspects relevant to ensuring the integrity of structures, systems and components under design and beyond design loads, to provide guidance in choosing the optimal ways of dealing with challenges to the integrity of operating as well as new nuclear power plants, and to make use of an integrated approach to design, safety and plant life management.
The activity (CAPS) of the WGIAGE group, entitled “Metallic Component Margins under High Seismic Loads (MECOS)”, was initially proposed by the metal sub-group of WGIAGE and approved by the CSNI in June 2012 as a Fukushima activity (F-CAPS). The proposal is aimed to assess the consequences of external hazards on plant safety. The main objectives of the MECOS project were to quantify the existing margins in seismic analysis of safety class components for high seismic loads and assess the existing design practices within a benchmark activity.