Inspection and monitoring activities are designed to detect and characterize significant SSC degradation before safety and production margins are compromised. Together with an understanding of ageing degradation, the results of inspections and monitoring and the subsequent trending of degradation parameters, provide a basis for decisions regarding the type and timing of maintenance actions and decisions regarding operational changes and design modifications to manage detected ageing effects. A risk informed methodology can contribute to minimizing ageing by providing the basis for targeted and more effective inspection and assessment.

A proactive monitoring, inspection and trending programme can be used to detect steam/feedwater piping wall thinning, due to flow-assisted corrosion (FAC), to characterize degradation rates and locations and, if necessary, predict when repair/replacements need to be implemented.