System Engineering Approach to Develop Reactor Vessel BMI Inspection

Due to the safety of the nuclear power plants, it became very clear the importance of study occurrence reactor coolant system (RCS) issues specially the primary water stress corrosion cracking (PWSCC). Bottom Mounted Instrumentation (BMI) nozzles have not been inspected during regular overhaul periods. However, there is growing concern since there have been leaks at some nuclear power plants as well as recent operating experience with pinhole leaks of reactor pressure vessel (RPV) lower head BMI at the South Texas Project (STP) (April 2003) following this incident, a similar condition was found at Palo Verde Unit 3 in 2013. Thus, in this book, a Systems Engineering approach was introduced in the development of a remote weld inspection system of BMI nozzles. The proposed BMI nozzle inspection system without removing reactor pressure vessel (RPV) internals will allows producing trend data and facilitate early detection of weld defects and lead to prevention of leakage at the BMI nozzle and weld. A special ultrasonic (UT) probe is introduced and a system carrying the UT probe was designed. A 3D model of the inspection system was also developed along with the RV and internals.

Autorentext

Khaled Atya Ahmed Abdallah from Egypt obtained MSc. Degree (2015) in Nuclear Power Plant Engineering from KINGS University in Ulsan, Korea and was given the Chairman's Award for academic achievement, which is the highest honor. Obtained B.S. Degree (2008) in Mechanical power Engineering from Menoufia University, Shibin AlKawm, EGYPT.