TY - JOUR A1 - Erhard, Anton A1 - Otremba, Frank T1 - Degradation of material properties significant for lifetime extension of nuclear power plants JF - MP materials testing N2 - The discussion about the right energy sources or alternative energy generation goes around the world, mostly in connection with green-house gas reduction. Therefore, some countries have started to consider extending operation of nuclear power plants. This demands an extensive plant life management as well as the knowledge of the degradation in material properties. The Basis Safety Concept (BSC) in Germany observed this circumstance. Still, lifetime extension is not an issue in Germany due to phase out of nuclear energy. Part of the BSC is the application of non-destructive examination (NDE) methods from the beginning, i.e. from component manufacture, to the end of life. The application of a NDE method to detect and size defects in components in nuclear power plants is presented. Some material properties and their degradation during increase of operation time are also in the focus of this paper. KW - Plant life management KW - Material properties KW - Ageing effects KW - Lifetime extension KW - Leak before break behaviour KW - German safety basis concept KW - Nondestructive evaluation KW - Synthetic aperture focusing technique PY - 2010 SN - 0025-5300 VL - 52 IS - 1-2 SP - 11 EP - 19 PB - Hanser CY - München AN - OPUS4-20836 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -