NDE for management of aging infrasturcture at the Savannah River site

Nondestructive examination (NDE) is a key contributor to the management of aging infrastructure at the Savannah River Site. Aging management is performed under a sitewide structural integrity program where NDE engineers function within a multidisciplined team to apply risk informed processes to select facilities and their safety significant structures, systems and components for the aging management program. This paper discusses an engineering approach for integrating NDE into aging management programs. It describes a process for verifying adequacy of existing predictive maintenance programs. It addresses NDE needs and trends for buried piping, a wide range of access constraints and challenges for NDE in facilities and components with hazardous materials, and provides an example of how NDE was used in a structural integrity evaluation that allowed cancellation of scheduled 1.5 million dollar piping system replacement project.