Underground Piping and Tanks 

Integrity Initiative 

Implementation Report to NSIAC 

January, 2013

Jim Riley

April 25, 2013
Overall Implementation Status
Overall Implementation Status

 All plants have completed the first seven milestones. 

– Inspections of buried piping containing licensed material at 

risk because of funding uncertainty, newly identified scope 

or inspection expansion due to findings.

 Positive or stable trends are indicated on each 

milestone with the exception of the June 30, 2013 

inspection completion milestone. 

– Challenge should be reduced by the Initiative change 

 NSIAC approved a revision to the Initiative on January 

30, 2013

– Focuses scope 

– Changes three of the Initiative milestones to December 31, 

2014 

– Revised as part of the industry’s efforts to address 

cumulative impact
Milestone Trends
Operating Experience as of 12/31/12
Operating Experience as of 12/31/12

 Number of reported events should not be interpreted as 

indicating any trends yet. 

– Total number of events for each year continues to change as plants 

report events from previous years. 

– Note delay in reporting underground piping leaks because a 50 day 

average reporting criteria has been established.

 Decline in significant leaks and one adverse inspection 

finding in 2012 requiring repair within one cycle
Operating Experience as of 12/31/12
Operating Experience as of 12/31/12

 Plants characterize systems differently; especially which 

systems are “run to failure”. This different characterization 

makes interpretation of this data imprecise, but general 

observations are possible

• The majority of buried and underground piping degradation is 

occurring on low risk or “run to failure” systems

• About 20% of the piping degradation has been on piping that is 

safety related, or contains radioactive or environmentally 

sensitive materials

• The relative percentages shown in the chart have not changed 

significantly since the industry began reporting the data
Operating Experience as of 12/31/12
Operating Experience as of 12/31/12

cracking, 7%

galvanic corrosion, 0%

general corrosion, 19%

other internal, 22%

flange seal, or selective leaching, 0%

mechanical joint 

failure, 2%

mechanical 

overload, 9%

pitting, 3%

other, 38%

February 2013 UPTI Task Force Failure Cause Codes
Operating Experience as of 12/31/12

 The major reported failure cause in this chart is 

“other” (includes events that do not have a 

reported cause) Use of this categorization 

(essentially a default) makes an evaluation of 

failure trends difficult. 

 Placing increased emphasis on the 

identification of causes 

 Utilities are doing a better job of categorizing 

events (53% of the causes were listed as 

“Other” in July 2011 versus 38% now).
AFI Review as of 12/31/12

Definition of the four 

categories of AFIs

Leaks – Area for 

improvement (AFI) written to 

address actions taken to 

address a leak 

Program - AFI written to 

address gaps in implementing 

elements found in the 

program or industry initiative 

U/G & CP - AFI written to 

address combination of leak, 

program, and cathodic 

protection (CP) gaps 

CP - AFI written exclusively 

for gaps in the cathodic 

protection program or 

equipment.
AFI Review as of 12/31/12

 Number of “Areas for Improvement” (AFIs) is indicative of 

the emphasis being placed on buried piping programs

 2007 – 2009: AFIs identified a lack of underground piping 

program monitoring and health assessment. 

 2011 and 2012: shift occurred focusing on implementation 

of NEI 09-14 and specifically safety related service water or 

radioactive piping leaks and mitigation of leaks. 

– AFIs during this time addressed areas such as not 

completing a thorough risk analysis, not meeting industry 

reporting requirements, not understanding the cause for or 

source of leaks 

 Gaps in the CP (cathodic protection) program have 

increased as the industry more clearly understands the role 

of cathodic protection.
NDE Technology as of 12/31/12

 Continuing significant commitment to buried/underground and tank NDE 

development, plant implementation support, benchmarking capabilities, and 

providing resources to service providers to improve technologies and 

procedures. EPRI buried pipe reports issued in 2012 include:

– Nondestructive Evaluation: Buried Pipe Nondestructive Evaluation Reference 

Guide—Revision 2 (1025220)

– Nondestructive Evaluation: Buried Pipe NDE Technology Assessment and 

Development Interim Report (1025219) – Presents benchmarking of NDE results 

and phased array probe technical basis 

– Inspection Methods for Tanks and Containment Liners (1025215)

– Buried Pipe Direct Examinations Through Coatings (1025228)

– Guided Wave Analysis Tools Update (1025212)

– Buried Pipe Structural Health Monitoring Sensitivity Studies (1025213)

– Nondestructive Evaluation: Buried Pipe In-Line NDE Depth Sizing Procedure 

(1025231)

 In-line inspection technology development and assessment continues and is a 

viable option for implementation. In addition, in-line repair technology is also 

being developed using the current delivery vehicles.
Buried Piping Inspection Results Database

as of 12/31/12

 Available in May 2012 

 Contains inspection information collected since early 

2011. 

 Allows users to share and view buried pipe inspection 

results in the form of queries, tables, graphs and 

reports. 

 Serves as a central repository for utilities to share 

buried pipe inspection results information and will 

provide patterns or trends to enhance inspection 

planning and prioritization. 

 Currently includes data from over 2,500 inspections of 

buried pipe from the US nuclear fleet.
Overall Observations as of 1/31/13

 NRC informed of Initiative change 

 Important that the revised milestones be 

met

 No major new observations on leakage 

trends or Initiative implementation
Overall Observations

 Significant advances in NDE technology 

development and adaption 

– Field use affected by the system modifications 

necessary to deploy the inspection tools

 BPITF considering ways to understand 

overall implementation

– Initially, a rollup of INPO and BPIG information. 

– Task force will review