Yep a simple WOG value you can buy for $9 dollars at home depot costs $500 dollars after it is certified and tested and approved for use in a plant.
What he may have been talking about is activation of troublesome elements that cause contamination that interferes with access. A prime example of this is the wear resistant alloy Stellite, used in valve seats. It's an alloy of cobalt. Some cobalt does wear off, gets circulated through the reactor, and is transmuted to 60Co, which increases the radiation field around all the piping.
All the materials in your reactor that are exposed to neutrons need to be purged of troublesome trace elements that can cause this sort of activation.
It has to do with strict traceability, design validation, and testing-proven performance more than it does anything about nuclear aspects.
I wonder if there's potential for a similar approach here?