Proceedings of the 9th international conference on NDE in relation to structural integrity for nuclear and pressurized components : 22-24 May 2012, Seattle, Washington, USA

The theme of the Ninth International Conference on NDE in Relation to Structural Integrity for Nuclear and Pressurised Components was the link between the information provided by NDE and the use made of this information in assessing structural integrity. In this context, there is a need to determine NDE performance against structural integrity requirements through a process of qualification. There is also a need to develop NDE to address shortcomings revealed by such qualifications or otherwise. Finally, the links between NDE and structural integrity require strengthening in many areas so that NDE is focussed on the components at greatest risk and provides the precise information required for assessment of integrity. These were the issues addressed by the papers presented at the conference. The level of interest in the subject matter of the conference was maintained from previous events and over 150 suitable papers were submitted for presentation at the conference. This required the programme to be organised in three parallel sessions, each on a specific theme, to provide each paper with sufficient time for presentation and to accommodate all of them within the overall time allocated. A major conference theme was related to the links between NDE and structural integrity. One of the three sessions contained all the qualification and structural integrity papers, including those on risk-informed inspection. This session also included papers on NDE reliability, material properties measurement and mathematical predictions of inspection performance through modelling. A second session was devoted to the theme of development of new inspection methods. The third session was concerned with inspections of specific reactor components. Two developments noted at the previous conferences in Budapest, San Diego, Yokohama and Berlin were the increased number of papers on the subjects of austenitic and bi-metallic weld inspection and also the use of phased arrays. These were also well represented in the programme of the conference in Seattle and are clearly topics which continue to arouse a high level of international interest. Seventeen countries were represented in the final programme from Europe, America, Asia and Africa. In the event, the conference was highly successful. The 156 presented papers maintained the high promise suggested by the written abstracts and the programme was chaired in a professional and efficient way by the session chairmen who were selected for their international standing in the subject. The number of delegates, at 312, was also highly gratifying, showing the high level of international interest in the subject. This is also indicated by the large number of countries, 17, represented by the delegates. These Proceedings provide the permanent record of what was presented. They indicate the state of development at the time of writing of all aspects of this important topic and will be invaluable to all workers in the field for that reason.