Relating ASME Flaw Evaluation to ASME Task Group on Carbon Fiber Repairs

As most nuclear power stations in the US have surpassed their initial 40 years of operability, the industry is now challenged with maintaining safe operations and extending the operating life of structures, systems and components. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), and Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) have identified safety related buried piping systems as particularly susceptible to degradation. These systems are required to maintain the structural factors of the ASME Construction Codes under pressure and piping loads, which includes seismic wave passage. This paper focuses on evaluation approaches for metallic buried piping that can be used to demonstrate that localized thinning meets the requirements of the Construction Code. The paper then addresses a non-metallic repair option using carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) as the new pressure boundary.