PERIODIC INSPECTION OF THE STATE OF THE METAL MAKING UP THE VESSEL OF WATER-MODERATED-WATER-COOLED REACTORS.

Methods, instruments, and the technology of periodic inspection of both the sealing and the inside surface of reactor vessels as well as the connecting pipes in the Novovoronezh Atomic Power Plant are described. The rather high level of ambient radiation, the high temperature of inspected metal parts, and the poor accessability of inspection sites made it necessary to use for inspection television equipment, periscopes, protective cables with built-in sighting windows and removable ports, a remotely controlled gamma -ray defectoscope, and special techniques of ultrasonic, optical and radiographical defectoscopy.