Destructive examination of the PVRC plates Nos. 50/52, 51/53 and 204

The present document describes the destructive examination of the blocks required to obtain the precise and complete description of all the defects the NDT techniques were supposed to find, locate and size. This precise map of defects has to be used as the reference for the PISC trial results evaluation. The destructive examination was discontinued once NDT, conducted under very favourable conditions on small sections of the plate, was able to detect all defects larger than or equal to 1 mm in diameter, and also to size the defects when only one portion of the defect was visible after cutting. Complete destructive examination has therefore only been carried out on some sections, either when it was absolutely necessary, or in order to give illustrative examples. In order to avoid any doubt as to the original position of a defect, scrupulous attention has been paid to marking the specimen pieces at all stages of the destructive examination