Intercomparisonn of Techniques for Pressure Tube Inspection of Pressurized heavy Water Reactor

This paper describes the analysis results of a series f Round-Robin test that was performed to intercompare inspection and diagnosis techniques for characterization of pressure tube f a pressurized heavy water reactor under the Coordinated Research Project(CRP) of IAEA's nuclear Power Programme. For this test, six nations, Korea, Canada, India, Argentina, Rumania, and China that currently have pressurized heavy water reactors under operation involved, and the "KOR-1" pressure tube sample prepared by Korea was used. Two kinds of NDE technique, ultrasonic and eddy current test, were applied for these tests. The "KOR-1" pressure tube sample contains total 12 artificial flaws such as crack-like EDM notches, wear that is similar to the real flaws and can be produced on the pressure tubes during plant operation. Test results showed that seven laboratories from six nations detected all twelve flaws in "KOR-1" specimen by using ultrasonic and eddy current test methods, and ultrasonic test method was more accurate than eddy current test method in flaw detectin and sizing. ID flaws in pressure tube sample were more easily detected and accurately sized than OD flaws.