EUROPEAN PROJECT ON STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY STYLE: PROJECT STATUS

The safety and reliability of all systems has to be maintained throughout the lifetime of a nuclear power plant. Continuous R&D work is needed in targeted areas to meet the challenges of long term operation of existing designs and for the GEN-III designs. A special focus is placed on reactor coolant pressure boundary (RCPB) components, because its integrity and functionality from the time of first operation until end of life is required to ensure plant safety. The overall objective of STYLE is to assess, optimize and develop the use of advanced tools for the structural integrity assessment of RCPB components relevant to ageing and life time management and to support the integration of the knowledge created in the project into mainstream nuclear industry assessment codes. The project concept is based on carefully selected research topics, which thematically cover the complex multidisciplinary character of structural assessment of RCPB components. The prioritization of the work reflects the needs of industrial end-users and assessment of currently available techniques and data at European and international level. This paper describes the current status of the project STYLE and summarizes its main results achieved up to date (Feb 2013). The project is coordinated by AREVA GmbH with 20 partner organizations from Europe, one collaborator from USA and one collaborator from Russia: AREVA GmbH, Germany (coordination, WP2 leader) AREVA SAS, France Bay Zoltan, Hungary CEA, France (WP1 leader) EDF, France EDF Energy Ltd., UK (WP7 leader) EK, Hungary IdS, France INR, Romania IWM, Germany JRC, Netherlands (WP4 leader) NRI, Czech Republic NRG, Netherlands SCK-CEN, Belgium AMEC, UK (WP3 and WP5 leader) University of Bristol, UK University of Manchester, UK Tecnatom, Spain Vattenfall, Sweden (WP6 leader) VTT, Finland ORNL, USA NIKIET, Russia