Development of Remote Field Testing Technique for Moisture Separator & Reheater Tubes in Nuclear Power Plants

The heat exchanger tube in nuclear power plants is mainly fabricated from nonferromagnetic material such as a copper, titanium, and inconel alloy, but the moisture separator & reheater tube in the turbine system is fabricated from ferromagnetic material such as a carbon steel or ferrite stainless steel which has a good mechanical properties in harsh environments of high pressure and temperature. Especially, the moisture separator & reheater tubes, which use steam as a heat transfer media, typically employ a tubing with integral fins to furnish higher heat transfer rates. The ferromagnetic tube typically shows superior properties in high pressure and temperature environments than a nonferromagnetic material, but can make a trouble during the normal operation of power plants because the ferrous tube has service-induced damage forms including a steam cutting, erosion, mechanical wear, stress corrosion cracking, etc. Therefore, nondestructive examination is periodically performed to evaluate the tube integrity. Now, the remote field testing(RFT) technique is one of the solution for examination of ferromagnetic tube because the conventional eddy current technique typically can not be applied to ferromagnetic tube such as a ferrite stainless steel due to the high electrical permeability of ferrous tube. In this study, we have designed RFT probes, calibration standards, artificial flaw specimen, and probe pusher-puller necessary for field application, and have successfully carry out RFT examination of the moisture separator & reheater tube of nuclear power plants.