Inspectors in our Structural Integrity specialism ensure that the integrity of key components of nuclear reactors meets the required standards to safely operate.
These components include reactor pressure vessels, nuclear pipework, boiler tubes, storage tanks, structures internal to the reactor and the graphite core in gas cooled reactors.
They carry out regular inspections and assessments of safety cases to ensure the parts listed above are being appropriately looked after by the operators. This is done for the design, manufacturing, operation and decommissioning phases of all nuclear sites to ensure worker and public safety.
Our Structural Integrity specialism inspectors are highly skilled and experienced. They understand how the inter-relationship between stresses, materials, defects and degradation mechanisms can affect the components of the plant listed above. They then carry out inspections to ensure the nuclear site is safe to operate.
Our specialist inspectors make important regulatory decisions on plant integrity issues. These include the end-of-life condition of the gas-cooled reactor, graphite core of reactors and the demonstration of reactor pressure vessel reactor integrity. Our specialist inspectors do this throughout a reactor’s life cycle taking account of any degradation that occurs over time.