Let’s address steel piping. The irradiation you mention is not an issue of making it radioactive as much as it is damaging the material integrity, making it poorer steel.
The power plant I work at has been irradiating the actual pressure vessel (the part where the fuel sits in) for over 48 years and just last spring, after removing the fuel, we walked into the annuls (area surrounding the vessel) and visually inspected the vessel. During the inspection you can touch the vessel. It does not become permanently and highly radioactive, one of many extreme misconceptions the public has. Yes it will be irradiated but typically decays away quickly, to a much lower amount, and is not to difficult to reclaim in the end. Though sometime burying it may be more economically reasonable to reclaiming.
Annulus not annuls sorry, typing a bit fast and between meetings
Which plant do you work at? Curious nuke worker here.