The BWRVIP Integrated Surveillance Program

Abstract

Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) plants in the U.S. are designed with radiation surveillance programs. However, the surveillance materials in some plants do not necessarily represent the limiting plate and/or weld material of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV). Also, some plants do not have baseline data for the surveillance materials, which is needed to measure irradiation shift. In 1998 the BWR Vessel and Internals Project (BWRVIP) conceived the BWR Integrated Surveillance Program (ISP) to address these concerns. The ISP surveyed all BWR vessel limiting materials and all available BWR surveillance materials (including materials from a 1990s supplementary research program called the Supplemental Surveillance Program, or SSP). For each vessel limiting weld and limiting plate, a best representative surveillance material was assigned, based on heat number, similar chemistries, common fabricator, and the availability of unirradiated data. Many of the selected surveillance materials are good representatives for the limiting materials of multiple plants, so fewer capsules are required to be tested, reducing the overall cost of surveillance while also improving BWR fleet compliance with 10CFR50 Appendix H.