The VERLIFE Guidelines are validated procedures for the calculation of the residual lifetime and integrity of components and piping of WWER–type reactors. They cover procedures for the calculation of the resistance against fast fracture, fatigue damage, corrosion-mechanical damage and acceptability of flaws found during in-service inspection. They also contain procedures for integrity evaluation of piping, in-service inspection qualifications, risk-informed in-service inspection as well as integrity and lifetime of reactor vessel internals and components supports. Numerous appendicies on related specific topics like e.g. degradation assessment of material properties by radiation damage and thermal ageing, thermal hydraulic regimes for pressurized thermal shock evaluations, etc. are part of the guidelines.
VERLIFE Guidelines are mainly based on former Soviet/Russian Rules and Codes for design and manufacturing of components and piping of WWER-type reactors. But they also incorporate operational experience of countries with running WWER-type reactors (i.e. Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, Slovakia, Ukraine, …) and to some extent approaches used in codes and rules of pressurised water reactors (PWRs) to be consistent with current PWR codes and rules as much as possible and thus provide modern, applicable procedures for component integrity and residual lifetime assessment of WWER-type plant components and piping. The VERLIFE Guidelines, in full or in parts, may be used for the preparation of official reports to support periodic safety review, licensing and plant life management programmes of WWER-type reactors with the approval of the national nuclear regulatory authority. This publication contains the main chapters and Appendices I – XVIII of the VERLIFE Guidelines. Appendices A-F are published as a separate JRC report (JRC 138451).
BRUMOVSKY M.;
MARTIN Oliver;
BRUMOVSKY, M. and MARTIN, O., VERLIFE Guidelines for Integrity and Lifetime Assessment of Components and Piping in WWER Nuclear Power Plants, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2024, doi:10.2760/529703, JRC138449.
2024-07-18
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC138449
978-92-68-18739-5 (online),
OP KJ-06-24-143-EN-N (online),
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC138449,
10.2760/529703 (online),
