Current Status of RRA Rules Development in JSME Fitness-for-Service Code Available to Purchase

Rules on Repair, Replacement Activities (RRA) in Fitness-For-Service (FFS) Code of the Japanese Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME) have been under development since the 2004 Edition. The FFS of 2010 Addenda to the 2008 Edition is under preparation for publishing at present. However, Japanese regulatory authorities, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) and Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization (JNES) have not endorsed the RRA rules yet, even though the rest of the FFS Code, i.e. inspection and flaw evaluation rules have been already endorsed. NISA/JNES have not even begun technical assessment of RRA rules yet, because regulatory authorities do not consider that RRA rules of JSME FFS Code have a completed system of RRA, inspection and flaw evaluation rules, e.g. in-service inspection intervals after repair. Also, the regulatory authorities are concerned that no method has yet been established by NISA/JNES to confirm the conformity of RRA rules in FFS Code with the governmental technical standard. In order to solve the problem of developing the completed system of RRA and related rules and of providing information on the relationship between RRA rules and governmental technical standards so as to assist regulatory authorities’ understanding, the RRA part of the JSME FFS Code was modified in the 2010 addenda. This paper describes the major features of the code modification of RRA rules in the 2010 Addenda. Remaining issues to be solved in future addenda or editions are also discussed.