With changes in inspection technology and an increasing awareness of the importance of reactor vessel embrittlement, the economic risk associated with identifying flaws during reactor vessel welds inspection is significant. SI personnel are involved in Section XI Code committee activities on a regular basis and are aware of the latest Code and regulatory issues related to reactor pressure vessel integrity issues.
SI is also well-known in the regulatory environment.
Over the last several years, SI has provided cost-effective service in this area to several utilities, providing services normally thought to be available only from the reactor vessel or nuclear steam supply system vendor. This is advantageous to utilities in that competition tends to keep operating costs low. SI proposes a two-stage approach in preparation for evaluation of potential flaws during RPV inspection. Considering the relatively low probability of finding flaws during inspections, SI recommends that the front-end activities before the outage be kept relatively small. As such we recommend a flaw evaluation handbook for the shell welds only, which can be accomplished in a very economical way.