Project Overview
The NozzleInspect project is partly funded by the European Seventh Framework Program (FP7) over two years and will develop new techniques to non destructive assessment and monitoring of nozzles used in nuclear power plants and mainly in nuclear reactors.
There are more than 450 nuclear power plants around the world and 210 in Europe. They provide approximately one-third of the total electricity produced in the EU [1]. This number is forecast to increase by 8% before 2010, 16% by 2020 and 24% by 2030 [2]. Nuclear power is an environmentally friendly form of generating electricity with respect to the production of greenhouse gases. The world stock of nuclear plants is ageing, with many units already over 40 years old. This figure is also forecast to rise as more utilities seek to extend the life of ageing plant. Keeping Europe's long-serving nuclear reactors in good shape is a prime concern for industry and policy-makers [3]. The risk of defects due to corrosion and other effects rises with the age of nuclear plant.
Critical crack-like defects can cause catastrophic failure of the nozzle in nuclear plants, leading to severe environmental and financial consequences. The goal of the NozzleInspect project is therefore to design an automated robotic scanning system that will be able to improve the reliability of speed of the inspection of welded nozzle sections in nuclear and other safety critical facilities. This system will deploy a new and novel phased array probe to perform a complete inspection of the nozzle weld, using an advanced navigation system to follow the complex weld profile.
