Leak-before-break safety concept. The integrity concept for pipes in German nuclear power plants

A closed integrity concept is used in Germany to ensure continuous integrity of important safety-related pressurized pipes of light water reactors. Successful application of this concept gives rise to the so-called leak-before-break criterion for the system considered. When leak before break is demonstrated for a system, this means that manufacturing quality is high and all stresses and damage mechanisms possible in operation and under accident conditions will be managed in such a way that spontaneous failure of that pipe by breaking can be excluded in accordance with the present state of the art in engineering. (orig.)