New developments for PWR steam generator tubes inspection in France

The authors report on technical developments in the field of steam-generator tube NDE, with the object of improving detection capacity and precision in the interpretation of signals and in the processing of results. They discuss how ultrasonic examination of the roll transition zone should allow detection of the appearance of cracks in the presence of axial defects; storage of the eddy current data on optical discs followed by real-time processing leads to an appreciable time saving for signal analysis and allows the use of expert systems; and computer processing permits rapid print-out of examination results. This enables a data bank to be set up and makes it possible to prepare programs for subsequent examinations automatically