Experience from the IAEA Pilot Study on NDE Qualification
P. Trampus, IAEA, Austria; P. Ashwin, EPRI, USA
ABSTRACT
Started in 1997 at the request of member States operating WWER Nuclear Power plants a regional Technical Co-operation project was established and funded by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The overall objective of the project, is improve safety, reliability and availability of WWER Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) through in-service inspection (ISI) using advanced NDE. Within this project a Pilot Study has been carried out to provide member states with practical advise on how to apply the IAEA's document on 'Methodology for qualification of ISI systems for WWER nuclear power plants.' The concept of the Pilot Study has been to simulate the qualification process by applying the aforementioned IAEA qualification methodology to a real component. In this case a circumferential weld of the Kozloduy Unit 5, WWER 1000 Reactor Pressure Vessel. Simulation of the qualification process has been achieved through real technical contributions. These include a Technical Specification, an NDE procedure, and a technical justification, all of which were specifically developed by the appropriate members of a pilot study team established to facilitate the pilot study. Initially the pilot study team was made up of representatives from the Bulgarian Nuclear Regulatory Authority, the Kozloduy NPP, the INETEC Institute for Nuclear Technology, Croatia, as ISI vendor, and GIDROPRESS, Russian Federation, which is the design institute of the WWER nuclear steam supply systems. Later the newly established independent Bulgarian Qualification Body of Bulgaria joined the team. Under contract to the IAEA, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), USA, provides consultancy to the pilot project. From the onset of the pilot program it was realized that successful achievement of the pilot study objectives could only be accomplished by the team members working together, yet retaining their independent roles in the qualification process. This paper will therefore present an overview of IAEA 'Methodology for qualification of ISI systems for WWER nuclear power plants' and most importantly illustrate the important lessons learned as the pilot study Team handled each major task of the qualification process and successfully met the objective of the pilot study.
Publication Source: 3nd International Conference on NDE in Relation to Structural Integrity for Nuclear and Pressurized Components, November 14-16, 2001, Seville Spain. Publisher: Tecnatom s.a. - [Homepage]
