Nondestructive examination of vessel bottom head penetrations

Conference · Sat Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:72572

Desruelles, D; Savin, E ^[1]; Bodson, F ^[2]; Morin, A ^[3]

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1. Framatome, Saint Marcel (France)
2. Framatome, Saone (France)
3. Electricite de France, Paris, FR (United States)

Vessel bottom Head penetration of French PWR units are made of Inconel 600 alloy which is known to be sensitive to stress corrosion cracking and so, need to be inspected. FRAMATOME has developed different complementary non destructive examination methods and a tooling to perform this inspection. These methods are able to detect, from the inside of the penetration, axially or circumferential oriented defects. For defects initiated in the inner surface, Eddy Current examination and TV inspection are used. If they are initiated in the outer surface, ultrasonic examination is used. In addition, ultrasonic examination enables the sensitive stress area of the penetration/vessel bottom head weld joint to be located to the detected defects. The use of fully numerical electronics allows extensive post-processing of ultrasonic and Eddy Current Data. In this paper, the nondestructive examination methods and associated tooling are presented. The accuracy of detection, location and sizing defects is also discussed.

• OSTI ID: 72572
• Report Number(s): CONF-931061--; ISBN 0-87170-506-0
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
CRACK PROPAGATION
DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEMS
DATA PROCESSING
EDDY CURRENT TESTING
NONDESTRUCTIVE TESTING
PERFORMANCE
PRESSURE VESSELS
PWR TYPE REACTORS
ULTRASONIC TESTING
WELDED JOINTS