Ensuring Safety of Structures and Components at Nuclear Power Plants

The needs for changes towards an effective in-service inspection of reactor components are presented, and the main areas related to effectiveness are described. These are the inspection scope focusing on potential degradation mechanisms, the schedule considering degradation kinetics and the optimized NDE efficiency. Then those elements of the technical development in context of NDE are presented, which respond to the challenges triggered by the changes, i.e. development in structural integrity analysis, fracture mechanics, life management and consideration of risk. Almost all responses can be connected to the development of information technology and microelectronics; these contribute to the improvement in flaw detection, characterization and sizing.