• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.258-267
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• 2015

Eddy current testing is widely used for inspecting steam generator tubing in nuclear power plants (NPPs). The inspection technique for steam generator tubing in NPPs should be qualified in accordance with examination guidelines. When the components of a qualified system such as eddy current tester, probe, and data analysis program, are changed, the equivalency of the modified system to the originally qualified system must be verified. The eddy current tester is the most important part of an eddy current testing system because it excites and transmits alternating currents to the probe, receives coil impedance of the probe and generates signals for anomalies. The Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co., Ltd. (KHNP) developed an eddy current testing system with an eddy current tester and data acquisition-analysis program for inspecting the steam generator tubing in NPPs; this system can be used for an array probe and as a bobbin and rotating probes. The equivalency assessment for the currently developed system was carried out, and we describe the results in this paper.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.63-68
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• 2013

Some essential components in nuclear power plants are periodically inspected using non-destructive examinations, for example ultrasonic, eddy current and radiographic examinations, in order to determine their integrity. These components include nuclear power plant items such as vessels, containments, piping systems, pumps, valves, tubes and core support structure. Steam generator tubes have an important safety role because they constitute one of the primary barriers between the radioactive and non-radioactive sides of the nuclear power plant. There is potential that if a tube bursts while a plant is operating, radioactivity from the primary coolant system could escape directly to the atmosphere. Therefore, in-service inspections are critical in maintaining steam generator tube integrity. In general, the eddy current testing is widely used for the inspection of steam generator tubes due to its high inspection speed and flaw detectability on non-magnetic tubes. However, it is not easy to analyze correctly eddy current signals because they are influenced by many factors. Therefore, the performance of eddy current data analysts for steam generator tubing should be demonstrated comprehensively. In Korea, the performance of steam generator tubing analysts has been demonstrated using the Qualified Data Analyst program. This paper describes the performance demonstration program for steam generator tubing analysts and its implementation results in Korea. The pass rate of domestic analysts for this program was 71.4%.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.228-232
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• 2005

The Korea Electric Power Research Institute (KEPRI) has developed performance demonstration programs for non-destructive testing personnel who analyze ECT(eddy current testing) data for steam generator tubing since 2001 The purpose of these performance demonstration programs is to ensure a uniform knowledge and skill level of data analysts and contribute to safe operation of nuclear power plants. Many changes have occurred in non-destructive testing of steam generator tubing such as inspection scope, plugging criteria and qualification requirements. According to the Notice 2004-13 revised by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), the analyst for steam generator tubing shall be qualified as the qualified data analyst (QDA), and the site specific performance demonstration (SSPD) program shall be implemented. KEPRI developed these performance demonstration programs and they are being successfully implemented. The analyst's performance is expected to be improved by the implementation of these programs.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.25-32
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• 2015

Many crack flaws have been detected at tubing seal weld zone in Steam Generator with Alloy600 material tubes. it is very difficult to discriminate the signal from parent material and that from weld zone because weld zone gives complicated ECT signal due to manufacturing processes. ECT signal analysis in the seal weld zone is very important since the tubes with crack in this area shall be out of service by plugging. The purpose of this paper is to distinguish between Parent material and Weld Zone ECT signal in the seal weld zone through the demonstration test of Steam Generator seal weld mock-up.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.1381-1389
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• 2019

Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) widely found in both primary and secondary sides of steam generator (SG) tubing in pressurized water reactors (PWR) has become an important safety issue. Using eddy-current tests (ECTs), non-destructive evaluations are performed for the integrity management of SG tubes against intergranular SCC. To enhance the reliability of ECT, this study investigates the effects of oxide films on ECT's detection capabilities for SCC in laboratory-degraded SG tubing in high temperature and high pressure aqueous environment.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.231-236
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• 2007

Due to the occasional occurrences of stress corrosion cracking(SCC) in steam generator tubing(Alloy 600), degraded tubes are removed from service by plugging or are repaired for re-use. Since electrodeposition inside a tube does not entail parent tube deformation, residual stress in the tube can be minimized. In this work, tube restoration via electrodeposition inside a steam generator tubing was performed after developing the following: an anode probe to be installed inside a tube, a degreasing condition to remove dirt and grease, an activation condition for surface oxide elimination, a tightly adhered strike layer forming condition between the electro forming layer and the Alloy 600 tube, and the condition for an electroforming layer. The reliability of the electrodeposited material, with a variation of material properties, was evaluated as a function of the electrodeposit position in the vertical direction of a tube using the developed anode. It has been noted that the variation of the material properties along the electrodeposit length was acceptable in a process margin. To improve the reliability of a material property, the causes of the variation occurrence were presumed, and an attempt to minimize the variation has been made. A Ni alloy electrodeposition process is suggested as a primary water stress corrosion cracking(PWSCC) mitigation method for various components, including steam generator tubes. The Ni alloy electrodeposit formed inside a tube by using the installed assembly shows proper material properties as well as an excellent SCC resistance.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.16-26
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• 1988

In the in-service inspections for the steam generator tubing of the nuclear power plants by the Eddy Current Testing, the ECT signals are evaluated by their phase. If oxidized copper sludge is piled up in the secondary side, however, big sludge signals occur in large quantities which originate from copper layers forming in the sludge piles due to the pitting mechanism of the steam generator tubing by $Cu^{2+}$, and modulate the defect signals, causing the difficulty in the defect detection. In this research, sludge specimens were prepared considering the formations of the sludge signal sources and multi-frequency ECT mixing experiments by different choices of the mixing standards were performed. The results were found to be 5 to 30% of the tube wall thickness over-estimated. Experiments using the ring-type mixing standards showed the least errors of all, while those with the mixing standards nearing the sludge conditions brought larger errors as a result of the influence of the interference between the defect and the copper layers.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.246-246
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• 1998

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.49-54
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• 2003

Most of the operating pressurized water reactors (PWRs)has chosen Inconel 600 as steam generator tubing. The long-term operation of steam generators showed that the use of this material induced localized corrosion damages. The current trend is using Inconel 690 as a tube material for the replacement steam generators. Based on the current trend, we have chosen Inconel 690 for the advanced Power Reactor 1400 (APR1400) steam generator tube material. In this paper, we examined the technical consideration in this modification: the effect of chemical composition, thermal conductivity, corrosion resistance and wear characteristics

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.5 no.5
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• pp.168-172
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• 2006

Alloy 600 having a superior resistance to a corrosion is used as a steam generator tubing in nuclear power plants. In spite of its high corrosion resistance, there are many tubings which experience corrosion problems such as a SCC under the high temperature and high pressure environments of nuclear power plants. The Alloy 600 tubing can be repaired by using a Ni electroplating having an excellent SCC resistance. In order to carry out a successful Ni electrodeposition inside a steam generator tubing, the effects of various parameters on the material properties of the electrodeposit should be elucidated. Hence this work deals with the effects of an applied current density, duty cycle($T_{on}/(T_{on}+T_{off})$) of a pulse current, bath temperature and solution pH on the material properties of Ni electrodeposit obtained from a Ni sulphamate bath by analyzing the current efficiency, potentiodynamic curve, hardness and stress-strain curve. Hardness, YS(yield strength) and TS(tensile strength) decreased whereas the elongation increased as the applied current density increased. This was thought to be by a concentration depletion at the interface of the electrodeposit/solution, and a fractional decrease of the hydrogen reduction reaction. As the duty cycle increased, the hardness, YS and TS decreased while the elongation increased. During an off time at a high duty cycle, the concentration depletion could not be recovered sufficiently enough to induce a coarse grain sized electrodeposit. With an increase of the solution temperature and pH, the YS and TS increased while the elongation decreased. The experimental results of the hardness and the stress-strain curves can be supplemented by the results of the potentiodynamic curve.