Discussion on life extension of nuclear power plant around the world

The very Paper introduces the concept, basic working flow and fundamental elements of the life extension of nuclear power plant (NPP) around the world; and it generally collects and summarizes the status datum of life extension of NPPs. Afterwards, the Paper analyses the present status of life extension of NPP in various countries with strong nuclear power industry, i.e. the United States, France, Germany, Russia Federation, Japan, South Korea and Canada. At the end, the Paper make a conclusion that whether an operating NPP will adopt life extension at the end of its design life, this issue depends on the factor of economy, safety and technical feasibility of life extension on the NPP. According to latest datum collected in 2009, the nuclear power units around the world, which have exceeded the design lives or are close to design life ends, most of them (about 64%) have selected to extend their service lives; based on this statistical data, we concludes that when an operating nuclear unit is facing with the issue of to extend life or to retire itself, it will be apt to make life extension. (authors)