Development of a combined ultrasonic and eddy current inspection system for examination of the internal surfaces of water-filled austenitic piping

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

OSTI ID:72593

Schmid, R; Bauer, R ^[1]; Persson, I ^[2]

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1. Siemens KWU, Erlangen (Germany)
2. Vattenfall, Ringhals (Sweden)

After October 1993, Swedish BWR power plant operators will be required to present an inspection concept which will facilitate the nondestructive examination of recirculation system piping. According to the pertinent Swedish codes and standards, such inspections will be required to focus on internal pipe surfaces. Since it is impossible for external inspections to cover all essential areas with the necessary degree of sensitivity (geometry, beam attenuation), Siemens-KWU was commissioned to develop an inspection system which combines ultrasonic search units and eddy current probes to produce the required degree of examination sensitivity. A pipe crawler was developed to transport the inspection unit. This device can be used for the inspection of circumferential and longitudinal pipe welds, nozzle-to-pipe welds and RPV nozzle-to-shell welds. Special probes designed to fulfill inspection and manipulation requirements were developed for the inspection of the 30 welds in the recirculation system. The ultrasonic equipment which forms part of the inspection unit uses SIALOK hardware, and the eddy current equipment is based on the MIZ 18 system.

• OSTI ID: 72593
• 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
BWR TYPE REACTORS
DESIGN
EDDY CURRENT TESTING
EQUIPMENT
IN-SERVICE INSPECTION
MANIPULATORS
PIPES
REACTOR COOLING SYSTEMS
ULTRASONIC TESTING