Objective
The objective of this project was to replace and augment specified Russian Federation equipment with EU equivalents where it was judged to be beneficial. The benefits were assessed against the following criteria:
 
i) Enhanced/improved inspection capability. The recommended equipment and methodology should enhance the quality of information on plant condition and integrity.
 

ii) More robust/compact equipment or reduced inspection timescales leading to reduction of man dose levels.
 

iii) Reliability: The recommended equipment should be intrinsically more reliable than existing equipment which was known to be prone to processing faults. These faults could lead to repeat inspections, often of a difficult nature and in areas of high background dose rates.
 

iv) The equipment to be supplied had to be capable of examination of components to a level at least equal to or better than that specified in the Russian standards and procedures.
 
The recommended equipment was significantly more user friendly to site inspections (e.g. it was more compact and portable and/or had in-built data collection facilities) which would reduce operator exposure time to harmful radiation and also provide more reliable and repeatable results.
 
Training/familiarisation was required to convert the operators to the use of the new equipment. It was accepted that the Smolensk NDT operators were already competent in most of the conventional NDT methods and the recommended training courses were designed mainly for new equipment familiarisation.
 
Results
 
The contract was completed successfully.
The scope of supply included the following equipment and services:

• Portable Spectroscopic equipment
• Portable Hardness Testing equipment
• In Situ Metallography equipment
• Ultrasonic Thickness Measurement equipment
• Ultrasonic Flaw Detectors
• Crack Depth Measurement equipment (Site Monitoring of Surface Breaking Cracks)
• Portable X-Ray equipment
• X-Ray and Gamma Ray Film Development equipment
• Magnetic Particle Inspection equipment
• Dye Penetrant Inspection equipment
• Recommended spare parts for the above equipment
• Training for the operation and maintenance of the supplied equipment

The Provisional Acceptance Certificate was signed on 11 July 1997.