Nuclear Power Plant NDE Challenges — Past, Present, and Future

The operating fleet of U.S. nuclear power plants was built to fossil plant standards (of workmanship, not fitness for service) and with good engineering judgment. Fortuitously, those nuclear power plants were designed using defense‐in‐depth concepts, with nondestructive examination (NDE) an important layer, so they can tolerate almost any component failure and still continue to operate safely. In the 30+ years of reactor operation, many material failures have occurred. Unfortunately, NDE has not provided the reliability to detect degradation prior to initial failure (breaching the pressure boundary). However, NDE programs have been improved by moving from prescriptive procedures to performance demonstrations that quantify inspection effectiveness for flaw detection probability and sizing accuracy. Other improvements include the use of risk‐informed strategies to ensure that reactor components contributing the most risk receive the best and most frequent inspections. Another challenge is the recent surge o...