Accelerated-aging methods as selection bases

There are real and substantial technical complexities in the application of accelerated-aging methods to determine a meaningful qualified life for safety-related materials and equipment. But, unfortunately, the debate over these complexities has dominated most thinking to the point of nearly excluding from consideration the most (potentially) valuable aspect of acceleration methods: their use as selection bases to obtain the best equipment and materials. We will demonstrate how the data (including extensive thermal and radiation data collected at Sandia), can be used in such a selection process, how ignoring the existing data can lead to inferior choices, and suggest ways to collect, take, and summarize data to be useful and available to the ultimate user, the utility