The non-destructive examination of butt-fillet tube-to-tubeplate welds for sodium-heated steam generators

The paper describes the inspection techniques which have been developed at Risley Nuclear Laboratories over the last decade for the tube-to-tubeplate welds in the sodium heated evaporator units of the Prototype Fast Reactor at Dounreay, Caithness, Scotland. These techniques include radiography for the fabrication inspection, magnetic crack detection for failure investigations and ultrasonic inservice inspection techniques. A computerised data recording system is also described for the inservice inspection techniques. (author)