NUCLEAR POWER PLANT CONCRETE STRUCTURES – AGING CONSIDERATION

Concrete structures in nuclear power plants provide foundation, structural support, biological shielding, containment, and protection against internal and external hazards. Aging of these structures occurs and has the potential, if not controlled, to increase the risk to public health and safety. Research providing guidance on aging management of reinforced concrete structures is summarized. Topics include a materials property database, an aging assessment methodology to identify critical structures and degradation factors, guidelines and evaluation criteria for use in condition assessments, and a reliability-based methodology for current condition assessments and estimations of future performance. Fragility analysis is used to compare the response of a degraded and undegraded propped cantilever beam. Several international activities addressing aging of nuclear power plant concrete structures are also summarized.

• INTRODUCTION

• SAFETY-RELATED CONCRETE STRUCTURES

• DEGRADATION CONCERNS

• STRUCTURAL AGING PROGRAM

• RESPONSE OF DEGRADED CONCRETE STRUCTURES

• INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES

• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

• REFERENCES