Program for the inspection of reactor steel components

The safety of nuclear power plants depends on the mechanical integrity of the materials, particularly the welds, used in their structure and on the ability to detect any degradation at an early stage or prevent it entirely. Non-destructive methods have been developed for finding surface and internal flaws that might develop and for determining their size. Techniques using sound waves of ultrasonic frequency are among the most widely applied particularly for important vessels and piping of the reactor plant. These components present very challenging inspection problems because of their size, complex shapes, combination of materials and difficulties of access after construction. The authors present a status report on a program for the inspection of reactor steel components