Aging and service wear of spring-loaded pressure relief valves used in safety-related systems at nuclear power plants

Spring-loaded pressure relief valves (PRVS) are used in some safety-related applications at nuclear power plants. In general, they are used in systems where, during accidents, pressures may rise to levels where pressure safety relief is required for protection of personnel, system piping, and components. This report documents a study of PRV aging and considers the severity and causes of service wear and how it is discovered and corrected in various systems, valve sizes, etc. Provided in this report are results of the examination of the recorded failures and identification of trends and relationships/correlations in the failures when all failure-related parameters are considered. Components that comprise a typical PRV, how those components fail, when they fail, and the current testing frequencies and methods are also presented in detail.