Article Article
Inspection Qualification of Ultrasonics for Inservice Examination of Ferritic Piping Welds

This paper presents the Inspection Qualification (IQ) of ultrasonic testing for ferritic piping welds in the CANDU Periodic Inspection Program (PIP). Currently, Manual Ultrasonic Testing (M-UT) is used when volumetrically inspecting plant ferritic welds in containment. Several distinctive challenges were met during this process, including the development of a target flaw size based on stress analysis, qualifying of M-UT for length sizing and flaw location only, and an extended timeline which saw all original staff for the project retire. Inspection Qualification for CANDU nuclear plants is based on Clause 3.6(e) of CSA-N285.4-09 which specifies that "the Licensee shall be responsible for the performance demonstration of the adequacy of the procedures and the proficiency of the personnel using the assigned equipment, to detect and size flaws in representative samples." [1] The IQ process is outlined by the CANDU Inspection Qualification Bureau (CIQB), which based it on the approach of the European Network for Inspection Qualification (ENIQ) [2]. This requires each procedure to be qualified in an open trial and supported by the Technical Justification (TJ).

References
  1. CSA N285.4-09. Periodic Inspection of CANDU Nuclear Power Plant Components. 2009.
  2. CANDU Inspection Qualification Bureau (CIQB). CIQB-GDL-03: Guidelines for the Contents of a Technical Justification.
  3. Jang, KiSang. COG-JP-4027-V06 R03: Inspection Specification for CANDU Ferritic Piping. 2013.
  4. ASME XI, Div.1. IWB-3500 Acceptance Standards. 2007.
  5. Yang, Songyan. COG-JP-4431-V03-R00 - Development of Target and Allowable Flaw Sizes for CANDU Ferritic Piping. 2012.
  6. Jayasinghe, V., P. Ciorau. COG-JP-4288-V01 R00: UT Examination Procedure for CANDU Ferritic Piping Welds – Conventional Detection and Length Sizing. 2013.
  7. —. COG-JP-4288-V02 R00: Technical Justification for UT Examination Procedure for CANDU Ferritic Piping Welds – Conventional Detection and Length Sizing. 2013.
  8. Jayasinghe, V., J.Coulas. COG-JP-4288-V03 R00: Personnel Qualification Testing - UT Examination Procedure For CANDU Ferritic Piping Welds – Conventional Detection and Length Sizing. 2013.
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