Nuclear Industry Applications

Boiling Water Reactors (BWR)

WesDyne trackless scanner at work on a BWR vessel (AMDATA Navigator™)

In the nuclear power generation industry, In-Service Inspections (ISI) of reactor vessels are required to be performed every 10 years.

The purpose of the ISI is to monitor any changes since the previous inspection in order to confirm the continued integrity of the reactor pressure boundary.

Baseline inspections are performed at the vessel’s manufacturing facility without access difficulties. ISI’s, however, are performed in place, and consequently have significant physical access restrictions.

To overcome these restrictions, and to provide the As-Low-As-Reasonably-Achievable (ALARA) and quality benefits of automated imaging, the Navigator™ Scanner was added to the AMDATA product line. Its first field use was to perform the second 10-year ISI of boiling water reactor (BWR) vessels at Taiwan Power Company (TPC).

The results of the inspections exceeded expectations, detecting previously unobserved manufacturing flaws using simultaneous ultrasonic and eddy current imaging.

Reactor Vessel Head Inspection

WesDyne Open Housing scanner for NDT of reactor vessel heads ( AMDATA Model 7010).

Using the AMDATA 7010 Open Housing scanner, the IntraSpect™ system is able to inspect the reactor vessel head. Five examinations are conducted simultaneously:

  1. Eddy current inspections of the inner diameter surfaces of the penetration tubes.
  2. Time-of-flight tip diffraction (TOFD) ultrasonic inspection for circumferential degradation on the penetration tube outer diameter surfaces.
  3. Time-of-flight tip diffraction (TOFD) ultrasonic inspection for axial degradation on the penetration tube outer diameter surfaces.
  4. High frequency straight beam ultrasonic inspection to identify a leak path.
  5. Low frequency straight beam ultrasonic inspection of the tube-to-weld surface.

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Reactor Vessel Longitudinal Welds

Using the Limited Access Under Reactor Insulation Examination (LAURIE™) scanner, the IntraSpect system is able to inspect the reactor vessel longitudinal welds.

It installs at window locations and at various nozzle locations.

It scans between the reactor vessel outer diameter and insulation with as little as 0.875 inches of clearance.

The LAURIE™ is capable of using phased array imaging technology and is qualified in accordance with ASME Section XI, Appendix VIII, PDI.

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LAURIE™ scanner for non-destructive examination and test of reactor vessel longitudinal welds