[en] In order to forecast the break of the high pressure vessels and the network of pipes in a nuclear reactor, according to the concept of leak before break of pressure vessels, it is necessary to analyze the conditions of project, production, and mounting quality as well as of exploitation. It is also necessary to evaluate the process of break by the help of the fracture criteria. In the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant of, in Lithuania, the most important objects of investigation are: the highest pressure pipes, made of Japanese steel 19MN5 and having an anticorrosive austenitic: coal inside, the pipes of distribution, which arc made of 08X1810T steel. The steel of the network of pipes has a quality of plasticity: therefore the only criteria of fragile is impossible to apply to. The process of break would be best described by the universal criteria of elastic - plastic fracture. For this purpose the author offers the criterion of the double parameter