Research in nondestructive evaluation techniques for nuclear reactor concrete structures

Abstract

The purpose of the Materials Aging and Degradation (MAaD) Pathway of the Department of Energy's Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program is to develop the scientific basis for understanding and predicting longterm environmental degradation behavior of material in nuclear power plants and to provide data and methods to assess the performance of systems, structures, and components (SSCs) essential to safe and sustained nuclear power plant operations. The understanding of aging-related phenomena and their impacts on SSCs is expected to be a significant issue for any nuclear power plant planning for long-term operations (i.e. service beyond the initial license renewal period). Management of those phenomena and their impacts during long-term operations can be better enable by improved methods and techniques for detection, monitoring, and prediction of SSC degradation. The MAaD Pathway R&D Roadmap for Concrete, "Light Water Reactor Sustainability Nondestructive Evaluation for Concrete Research and Development Roadmap", focused initial research efforts on understanding the recent concrete issues at nuclear power plants and identifying the availability of concrete samples for NDE techniques evaluation and testing. [1] An overview of the research performed by ORNL in these two areas is presented here.