Fire protection layer for electrical cables

The Stress Corrosion Cracking and Cable Ageing Project (SCAP) lasted four years (2006-2010). The project’s main objectives were to:

• establish two complete databases with regard to major ageing phenomena for stress corrosion cracking (SCC) of metal piping and degradation of cable insulation respectively, through collective efforts by NEA member countries;
• establish a knowledge base by systematically compiling and evaluating collected data and information;
• perform an assessment of the data and identify the basis for commendable practices which would help regulators and operators to enhance ageing management.

The project defined and refined the database performance requirements, data format and coding guidelines, and focused on populating the database and assessing the data.

The database, together with the knowledge base and the commendable practices developed by the members, provided a tool for assisting NEA member countries in ageing management. The final report of the project provided a technical basis for commendable practices in support of regulatory activities in the fields of SCC and cable insulation ageing. At the end of the project, a workshop entitled Commendable Practices for the Safe, Long-Term Operation of Nuclear Reactors - NEA Stress Corrosion Cracking and Cable Ageing Project (SCAP) was organised in Tokyo, Japan, in May 2010 where the project's outcomes were summarised. 

Following the completion of the SCAP project, SCC participants recognised that there were many similarities between the OPDE and the SCAP SCC databases and therefore, it was decided to combine the two databases and build a new database project called Component Operational Experience, Degradation and Ageing Programme (CODAP) which continues today. The cable ageing part of the SCAP project concerning electrical and I&C cables and management of their ageing effects was integrated in another NEA database project, the Cable Ageing Data and Knowledge (CADAK) project.

More information on the SCAP project may be found in SCAP: the NEA project on stress corrosion cracking and cable ageing.