Results of Open Testing for the Program to Assess the Reliability of Emerging Nondestructive Techniques (NUREG/CR-7236, Volume 1)

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Publication Information

Manuscript Completed: December 2016
Date Published: August 2017

Prepared by:
R. M. Meyer, A. E. Holmes, and P. G. Heasler

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
P.O. Box 999
Richland, WA 99352

I. Prokofiev and B. Lin, NRC Project Managers

NRC Job Code V6286

Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Washington, DC 20555-0001

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Abstract

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has established the Program to Assess the Reliability of Emerging Nondestructive Techniques (PARENT) whose goal was to investigate the performance of current emerging and perspective novel nondestructive examination (NDE) procedures and techniques to find flaws in nickel-alloy welds and base materials. This was performed by conducting a series of open and blind international round-robin tests on a set of nickel alloy piping components that include large-bore dissimilar metal welds (LBDMW), small-bore dissimilar metal welds (SBDMW), and bottom-mounted instrumentation (BMI) penetration welds. The project was split into open and blind testing portions for the purpose of separating the evaluation of novel techniques that are at a stage of relative immaturity for field testing and which were implemented by teams that may not have significant experience in conducting field examinations (open testing) from the evaluation of more established techniques implemented by commercial inspection vendors (blind testing). This report is focused on documenting the open testing activity and results. The motivation for evaluating emerging NDE techniques includes the desire to identify more effective methods for detecting and characterizing rapidly growing forms of degradation, such as primary water stress corrosion cracking (PWSCC) and interdendritic stress corrosion cracking (IDSCC).

PARENT was a follow-on to the Program for Inspection of Nickel Alloy Components (PINC), which was based on the Bilateral International Agreements with participants and the in-kind contribution of resources from organizations of Finland, Japan, Republic of Korea, Sweden, and the United States of America to evaluate several nondestructive techniques for detection and characterization of PWSCC and IDSCC in SBDMW and BMI components. In February 2012, the NRC conducted new agreements with VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Nuclear Regulation Authority of Japan, Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety, Swedish Radiation Safety Authority, and Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate to establish PARENT to conduct a series of round-robin tests on SBDMWs, BMIs, and LBDMWs. The open testing portion of PARENT was performed with knowledge of true-state information in the open test blocks provided to teams conducting tests. As a result, no detection performance analyses were performed on open test data. Thus, the evaluation of open test data is based on statistical analyses of sizing data and qualitative review of data response images.