Extending the life expectancy for large industrial assets, such as commercial nuclear reactors, steers aging management programs towards a sustainable, consistent framework that emphasizes high impact activities, while reinvesting technical knowledge and resources towards longer-term aging effects. Aging management program approaches have focused on short- to medium-term aspects that can be challenged by life extension if a re-balancing of the existing and emerging issues over these longer intervals is not considered. In addition, while aging management programs will always be focused on ensuring public health and safety, degradation of integral components, such as cooling water and back-up diesel fuel pipelines, can also have a large impact on lost inventory, service interruptions, and, ultimately, increasing costs to operators and rate payers. This paper will provide an overview of an approach and framework of leveraging risk insights to optimize implementation of aging management programs. The primary focus will be on the consideration of the component-environment degradation mechanisms and the use of operating experience to determine the likelihood of degradation inception and potential failure of components due to those aging effects. This will be discussed in the wider framework of two aging management program pilots which integrates these likelihood and consequence aspects in the wider context of nuclear power plant safety. The overall intent of the framework is to focus on optimized implementation activities (i.e., focus and manage more risk significant aspects to maximize benefits).