Continuous on-line monitoring of active and passive systems, structures and components in nuclear power plants will be
critical to extending the lifetimes of nuclear power plants in the US beyond 60 years. Acoustic emission and guided
ultrasonic waves are two tools for continuously monitoring passive systems, structures and components within nuclear
power plants and are the focus of this study. These tools are used to monitor fatigue damage induced in a SA 312 TP304
stainless steel pipe specimen. The results of acoustic emission monitoring indicate that crack propagation signals were
not directly detected. However, acoustic emission monitoring revealed crack formation prior to visual confirmation
through the detection of signals caused by crack closure friction. The results of guided ultrasonic wave monitoring
indicate that this technology is sensitive to the presence and size of cracks. The sensitivity and complexity of guided
ultrasonic wave (GUW) signals is observed to vary with respect to signal frequency and path traveled by the GUW
relative to the crack orientation.
The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has been conducting a multi-year program for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research on the effectiveness of NDE for inspection of nuclear power plants. One task of this program concerns the development of generic flaw density and distribution functions for fabrication flaws in reactor pressure vessels. Reactor pressure vessel material from the cancelled Shoreham nuclear power plant was obtained as a part of a joint program between the NRC, Baltimore Gas and Electric and the Electric Power Research Institute. PNNL has conducted NDE inspections of this material and has estimated the density and distributions of fabrication flaws in this material. This paper discusses these inspections and the results of analyzing this inspection data. More than 4,000 fabrication flaws were detected and are described in this paper.
The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is developing a methodology for estimating the size and density distribution of fabrication flaws in U.S. nuclear reactor pressure vessels. This involves the nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of reactor pressure vessel materials and the destructive validation of the flaws found. NDE has been performed on reactor pressure vessel material made by Babcock & Wilcox and Combustion Engineering. A metallographic analysis is being performed to validate the flaw density and size distributions estimated from the 2500 indications of fabrication flaws that were detected and characterized in the very sensitive SAFT-UT (synthetic aperture focusing technique for ultrasonic testing) inspection data from the Pressure Vessel Research User Facility (PVRUF) vessel at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Research plans are also described for expanding the work to include other reactor pressure vessel materials.
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