January-February 2019 NPJ

Advanced CE MRP Examination By Michael Stark, Dominion Energy. Michael Stark Michael Stark is a Nuclear Technical Specialist III in the Nuclear Engineering Programs Department of Dominion Energy. He is the Fleet Lead for the Dominion Steam Generator Program and his responsibilities include the nondestructive examinations performed on the reactor vessels, reactor vessel closure heads, in-core flux detector thimble tubes, and all heat exchangers at Millstone Power Station. Michael has received six Nuclear Energy Institute -Top Industry Practice Awards. The Nuclear Energy Institute’s Top Innovative Practice Awards highlight the nuclear industry’s most innovative techniques and ideas. This innovation won the 2018 Framatome Vendor Award. The team members who participated included Michael Stark, Engineering, Dominion; Patrick Jacksin, Outage Coordinator, Dominion; Jason Jones, Manager, NDE Operations, Framatome; Zach Smith, Design Engineer, NDE Tool Development, Framatome; and Bob Furter, Electrical Design Engineering Manager, Framatome. Summary The reactor internal components support the reactor core, guide the reactor cooling water, and insure proper control rod insertion. For many years utilities have been performing inspections of the internals in accordance with the requirements outlined in ASME code section XI. Due to the concerns associated with aging plant components and extending plant life through license extensions, the industry (EPRI, utilities, and vendors) supported the development of a Materials Reliability Program (MRP). The MRP evaluated the damage mechanisms that could possibly occur over time and developed stringent new inspection requirements. These requirements were documented in MRP 227A and MRP 228 and released to the utilities. The inspections are similar to the ASME requirements; however, the majority of the new inspections have to be performed at a higher quality. For example, many ASME visual exams (VT) are performed several feet from the component using a VT-3 requirement. The new inspection requires the enhanced visual inspection (EVT) to be performed inches away meeting the requirements of an EVT-1 requirement. The MRP 227 primary components for a CE configuration are all referenced as visual examinations with a blend of classifications from VT-3 through EVT- 1 shown in Graphic 1. Framatome has performedvisual examinations onprimary system components for many years. As the requirements for VT Nondestructive Examination (NDE) are continually moving toward providing better quality images, the traditional VT delivery Graphic 1. CE MRP Main Inspection Components. 46 NuclearPlantJournal.com Nuclear Plant Journal, January-February 2019