Fabrication Flaws in Reactor Pressure Vessel Repair Welds

This paper describes the fabrication flaw distribution and characterization in the repair weld metal of reactor pressure vessels. This work indicates that the large flaws occur in these repairs. These results show that repair flaws are complex in composition and sometimes include cracks on the repair ends. Parametric analysis using an exponential fit is performed on the data. A description of repair flaw morphology is provided. Fabrication flaws in repairs are characterized using high sensitivity nondestructive ultrasonic testing, validation by other nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques, and complemented by destructive testing.