Description of the Performance Demonstration Initiative (PDI) program
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) establishes rules and regulations for the operation of domestic nuclear facilities publicized in the United States Federal Register under 10CFR50. The NRC has established the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code as the engineering authority for the design, construction and operation of nuclear reactors. Section XI of the ASME Code contains the rules for in-service inspection of nuclear plant components. Appendix VIII describes the additional requirements for performance demonstration of UT examinations systems that integrate personnel, equipment and procedures into a single entity. That entity is the PDI program owned by the utilities. EPRI is the operator of the PDI program.
In order to be used by a vendor during an examination, ultrasonic equipment and probes have to successfully meet the requirements of the general procedure through performance demonstration on controlled samples as administrated at the EPRI PDI laboratory.
PDI Procedures for Studs and Bolts ultrasonic examination
PDI-UT-5 is a generic PDI procedure providing an examination method to detect, locate and evaluate circumferentially oriented notches or flaws that are primarly perpendicular to the stud or bolt axis. It can be performed on studs or bolts with or without a center bore hole. The examination is realized from one or both ends using a zero degree longitudinal wave search unit.
Generalized Qualification Matrices
Olympus flaw detectors and transducers used for qualification are outlined in the following tables.
Qualified Legacy Equipment:
Note that the following models were also qualified during their lifetime for UT-5:
- EPOCH II, III and 4
- SONIC 1200S, 136 and 137
Customers should refer to PDI tables for specific qualification matrices.
Updates will be provided on a regular basis as we are actively pursuing these areas.
PDI UT-5: Straight Beam Ultrasonic Examination of Bolts and Studs | ||||||||
Flaw Detector | ||||||||
Vendor | Probe | Element | Frequency | Wedges or angles | EPOCH XT | EPOCH 1000i | EPOCH 600 | |
Olympus | A10 | 0.5 in | 10 | 0 LW |
X
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X
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X
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