Objective
The safe operation of the 450 nuclear power plants around the world and 210 in Europe depends on the regular in-service inspection of the reactor pressure vessels, which contain the nuclear fuel. Reactor Pressure Vessels (RPVs) which house the fuel of a nuclear power plant are made of thick steel sections welded together. This steel becomes brittle with age and is therefore more susceptible to the rapid growth of cracks.
These RPVs contain water under high pressure and are particularly susceptible to a process known as 'stress-corrosion cracking'. Current methods of inspection have major drawbacks because:
- They require large and heavy robots costing millions of Euros. In most cases these robots require the use of a central mast manipulator and insertion of this mast is a difficult and time-consuming operation, requiring the use of the Plant's polar crane and causing disruption to other activities during the plant outage thus increasing time of inspection.
- These require several large inspection sensors placed in complex "probe pans" to inspect large areas. The probe pans have to be changed several times thus increasing time of inspection.
- They can sometimes miss defects or wrongfully size them. All the above current drawbacks mean that large amounts of time consuming manual intervention is required during inspection thus requiring operators to work in radiation hazardous areas. This also increases inspection time, which carries a huge economic cost.
To overcome the above drawbacks this project satisfies an urgent need to develop new and novel inspection methods, which can speed up inspection times, improve defect detectability and reduce operator exposure to dangerous radiation whilst working inside the reactor containment.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences computer and information sciences software
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering control systems
- engineering and technology other engineering and technologies nuclear engineering
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering sensors
- engineering and technology environmental engineering energy and fuels
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
FP6-2002-SME-1
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
CAMBRIDGE
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.