ENIQ Recommended Practice 10 - Personnel Qualification - ENIQ report no 38

This Recommended Practice is meant to assist those involved in the qualification of inspection personnel to meet the principal objective of personnel qualification, i.e. to ensure that those carrying out an inspection are appropriately trained, experienced and examined to ensure it is applied correctly and effectively. Detailed guidance on how to conduct personnel qualification, handle qualifications to be renewed, and defining the role and responsibilities of the parties involved in the personnel qualification process is provided.JRC.DDG.F.5 - Safety of present nuclear reactor

European Methodology for Inspection Qualification - An Overview for the Non-specialist

The purpose of this document is to provide an overview of the European Network for Inspection and Qualification (ENIQ) Qualification Methodology and how the process of Inspection Qualification is commonly applied within Europe and elsewhere. It is intended as a reference source for a wide audience of engineers and technical staff such as safety engineers, stress analysts etc. who may not be routinely involved with either non-destructive examination or inspection qualification, but who may benefit from a greater understanding and appreciation of the ENIQ Qualification Methodology. It will also benefit those personnel who have a responsibility to provide practical assistance in the preparation of the qualification process.JRC.DDG.F.5-Safety of present nuclear reactor

ENIQ 2nd Pilot Study - Defect Assessment and Destructive Examination Report

This document compiles the results of the defect assessment and destructive examination carried out to determine the true dimensions and orientations of the defects, which have been deliberately implanted into the ENIQ nozzle assembly 21. Two different fabrication techniques have been used to implant the defects. Both surface breaking and near surface defects were produced by spark erosion using an electrode with a sharp tip. These are so-called PISC type A defects, and silica based replicas were taken on each defect after manufacturing. The silica based replicas were examined by the JRC, Institute for Energy in Petten. The second group of defects are located on the weld fusion faces and are embedded in the base material. These sidewall lack of fusion defects, which were produced by means of the so-called coupon technique, have been destructively examined by the Nuclear Research Institute (NRI) Rez.JRC.F.4 - Nuclear design safet

Smart Grid Interoperability Laboratory

The Smart Grid Interoperability Laboratory in Petten was inaugurated on 29 November 2018. The Smart Grid Interoperability Laboratory is designed to foster a common European approach to interoperable digital energy, focussing on the smart home, community and city levels. The facility in Petten is part of a larger activity of the JRC, as the science and knowledge service of the European Commission, encompassing electric vehicles, smart grids and batteries. The activities in 2020 are highlighted in this report.JRC.C.3 - Energy Security, Distribution and Market

Ultrasonic Wave Attenuation Measurements in RPV Cladding

Reliable ultrasonic inspections require a good understanding of the beam¿s behaviour within the inspected material. Among the physical parameters characterising the interaction of the beam with its supporting medium, ultrasonic attenuation is important because it limits the volume of the system that should be inspected, and is an input parameter for mathematical models, which play an increasingly important role in non-destructive testing by allowing computer simulations. In this study the predominantly scattering-induced longitudinal wave attenuation in RPV cladding is measured as a function of the propagation direction. The experimental data is obtained by an enhanced measurement technique, which requires mapping of the ultrasonic field transmitted through plane-parallel test pieces of different thicknesses. The high accuracy of the measurement technique has been previously demonstrated, and its superiority over conventional approaches is shown here once again.JRC.DDG.F.5-Safety of present nuclear reactor

A Synopsis of the ENIQ 2nd Pilot Study

The objective of the ENIQ 2nd pilot study was to show how to fully exploit the potential of technical justifications (TJ) in the qualification of inspection procedures and thereby reduce the number of test piece trials on full-scale components. As the subject of the study a ferritic BWR-type nozzle to shell weld was selected. A TJ was produced, partly relying on modelling, to predict whether a designated ultrasonic inspection would be successful in detecting the specified defects. In parallel, a test piece with deliberately introduced defects was fabricated and inspected with the inspection system specified in the TJ. Predictions and inspection results were compared. In addition, as a separate exercise, three different mathematical models were used to predict the responses of the defects in the test piece to provide information on model applicability and accuray of prediction. The ENIQ 2nd pilot study has been largely successful in showing that TJs have the potential to predict the outcome of specific inspections and to reduce or remove the need for large scale test pieces in qualifiation. The project has shown that models are available which give largely conservative predictions of defect response when used within their regimes of validity.JRC.F.4-Nuclear design safet

Issues to be considered when measuring ultrasonic wave attenuation in austenitic cladding material

The experimental data obtained in a previous study is reprocessed to estimate the impact of several modifications of the measurement approach on the intrinsic longitudinal wave attenuation as a function of the propagation direction in reactor pressure vessel strip cladding. The measurement of the attenuation in anisotropic structures is a difficult task and this paper provides more insight on how the measurement approach works. It should help the reader to plan and carry out similar experiments.JRC.F.4-Nuclear Reactor Integrity Assessment and Knowledge Managemen

Ultrasonic Properties of Reactor Pressure Vessel Strip Cladding

The modelling of ultrasonic wave propagation and beam-defect interactions in reactor pressure vessel cladding is demanding due to its anisotropic structure. It requires good knowledge of the ultrasonic properties in terms of the elastic constants and the intrinsic ultrasonic wave attenuation in order to obtain reliable simulation results. This paper provides experimental input data for mathematical models to simulate ultrasonic inspections of reactor pressure vessels with strip cladding. The measurement of the absolute ultrasonic wave attenuation is a particularly difficult task, and there is a lack of reliable data in the literature. Both a conventional and a more advanced experimental technique are applied to measure the attenuation of longitudinal waves. Reasons for the disagreement between the results obtained by means of the two measurement techniques are discussed.JRC.F.5-Safety of present nuclear reactor

Enhanced Experimental Approach to Measure the Absolute Ultrasonic Wave Attenuation

The absolute ultrasonic wave attenuation is an important input parameter for mathematical models, which play an increasingly important role in non-destructive testing. The measurement of the absolute ultrasonic wave attenuation however is a difficult task. When conventional measurement techniques are applied, corrections to the raw data are required to account for apparent losses. In this study, a modified experimental approach is proposed to determine the absolute ultrasonic attenuation without any further corrections of the raw data.JRC.DG.F.5-Safety of present nuclear reactor

Longitudinal Wave Attenuation Measurements in Ductile Cast Iron

The predominantly scattering-induced attenuation coefficient of a beam of longitudinal plane waves travelling in three different directions through a ductile cast iron specimen is measured as a function of the frequency. The experimental data is obtained by mapping the incident and the transmitted ultrasonic field, and by evaluating the energy loss experienced by each plane wave component of the beam. The high accuracy of this so-called energy method has been previously demonstrated, and its superiority over conventional approaches is shown here once again. The experimentally evaluated attenuation coefficient of high accuracy is an important input parameter for mathematical models, which play an increasingly important role in non-destructive testing by allowing simulations of inspection results without the time and cost of constructing specimens and performing measurements.JRC.F.5-Safety of present nuclear reactor