• RCC-M personnel qualification must preferably follow European Standard but any equivalent specification can be admitted; ASME refers to U.S. standards (SNT-TC-1A).
• Differences exist in examination techniques and methods between ASME and RCC-M.
• ASME Section III considers pre-service examinations in accordance with Section XI requirements, while RCC-M allows owners requirements for pre-service examination.
Examination methods are addressed Section III of the RCC-M and Section V of the ASME BPVC.
The RCC-M refers to examination in its Section I, but in Subsection A, essentially refers and instructs the user to look into Section III for the documentation relating to examination. The other Subsections of Section I (B, C, and D) refer to Section IV, Welding, for the examinations associated with manufacturing.
ASME Section III includes in its Division 1 Section NB-5000 requirements that are unique to the nuclear industry, including specification of limits for acceptance after examination. A significant part of the information on nondestructive examination (NDE) is nevertheless concentrated in a different section (Section V), as in the RCC-M.
It should be mentioned that both RCC-M and ASME also include provisions for NDE in their Material sections, Section II in both codes, especially about the extent, the time (stage) and acceptance criteria for the examination. Special examination requirements for welding are also included in Section IV of the RCC-M and Section IX of the ASME.
This section first describes the differences in practice for NDE personnel qualification and then, in a second paragraph, focuses on the differences between the techniques and methods used.
NDE personnel qualification is done per SNT-TC-1A according to the ASME Section III Division 1 NB-5510. In paragraph Section III Division 1 NB-5522, it is stated that the employer has the responsibility of the adequacy of the qualification program as well as the certification of Level I, II, and III NDE personnel. This is sufficient in the U.S. to become certified by the American Society of Nondestructive Testing or ASNT.
RCC-M Section III Section MC-8000 invites the user to comply with the European norm NF EN 473.
Numerous common points between the two certifications can be highlighted: three levels of certification, experience, and practical examination are required to progress to upper levels; certificate expires every 5 years. The certification in Europe requires the intervention of a third party to qualify the NDE personnel. This third party must be accredited by NF EN ISO/IEC 17024 to deliver certification according to the NF EN 473 performs qualification. Outside Europe, RCC-M accepts a certification granted by an independent organization following an equivalent standard after approval by The Contractor (MC 8000). A qualification from the employer as in the U.S. is not fully equivalent in process, but the technical result is level equivalent provided the employer is fully reliable.
In addition, it should be highlighted here that the qualification from the employer in ASME BPVC is not fully equivalent to certification EN 473 delivered by a third party in Europe in the process itself, despite the fact that the levels of competencies are similar (Appendix A – line NB-5520).
To conclude this discussion, in practice, despite the difference highlighted above, this certification issue can be overcome. The detailed comparison work was done in Reference [3] and the conclusion was that the requirements for Inspector Certification per SNT-TC-1A and per EN 473 offer the same guarantees.
The following discussion focuses on the differences between the techniques and methods presented in each of the codes.
First, in RCC-M Section IV S-7363, it is mentioned that liquid penetrant examination is required for Class 1 and 2 welds before starting any welding. In ASME Section III NB-4400, no such provision can be found. Looking at this method of examination in the two codes, it can be seen that the ASME Code is very descriptive as regards the liquid penetrant examination (ASME BPVC Section V, Article 6). Moreover, the penetrant removal technique is different as well as the drying method. But as analyzed in Reference [3], this gives equivalent results in practice.
The ASME Section III Division 1 NB-5410 requires examination of the weld joints by liquid penetrant or magnetic particle in addition to carrying out all pre-service volumetric examinations (Appendix A – line NB-5410). The RCC-M Section I B-5240 does not call for such stringent examination after the hydrotest. The philosophy is different: instead of asking for more stringent check after the test, there exists other testing, as specified Section I B-5300, that will make any problem visible. The RCC-M requires visual examination in the case of tracking gross plasticity distortion, as per RCC-M Section I B-5520. RCC-M Section IV S-7460 requires also visual examination of Class 1 and 2 welded joints.
The RCC-M requires removal and liquid penetrant examination of all arc strikes. This examination is not required by ASME. However, in practice, arc strikes are generally examined using liquid penetrant following removal and blending.
For ultrasonic examination of welds, the classification of defects as planar or non-planar is essential as a planar defect is unacceptable. For this classification, the RCC-M refers to a European standard.
The ASME leaves this responsibility to the NDE personnel.
The ASME BPVC includes also a paragraph about pre-service examination, Section III Division 1 NB-5332. Conversely, it should be noted here that for the PSI, it is the AFCEN RSE-M Code that covers this and that no paragraph about this topic can be found in the RCC-M (Appendix A – lines NB-5280 and NB-5332). At this stage though, it is also interesting to mention that the RCC-M Code allows the use of ASME BPVC Section IX for pre-service and in-service inspection. Using the RCC-M Code does not mean that the RSE-M Code should be used exclusively for these types of inspections. For the ASME BPVC, if the component is manufactured per the ASME BPVC, it is often more challenging to switch to another code for pre-service and in-service inspection.
It should also be noted that all that relates to brazing cannot be found in the RCC-M: this includes ASME BPVC Section III Division 1 NB-5274 and NB-5370 (Appendix A – lines NB-5274 and NB-5370).
Finally, a last point of comparison between the codes is the acceptance criteria. Taking first the radiographic examination, it can be seen first in ASME BPVC Section III Division 1 NB-5320 that the term “indication” is used. It can refer to a gas cavity as well as an inclusion. The RCC-M distinguishes the two and provides acceptance criteria depending on the nature of the indication (Appendix A – line NB-5320). Table 26 gives an example of the acceptance criteria for the radiographic examination from the two codes.
Turning to the ultrasonic examination, it is possible to see that the criteria given in Section III Division 1 NB- 5330 are more or less identical to the radiographic examination criteria (Appendix A – line 5330). On the other hand, the RCC-M is particularly extensive about this examination as can be seen in Section IV S-7714.4.
From the two previous examples, it can be seen that the RCC-M offers a more detailed and prescriptive set of requirements. One final example deals with the magnetic particle examination. In
this case, it is not as easy to conclude which of the two codes is really more restrictive. The comparison can be seen in Table 27 (Appendix A – line 5340).
Other examples of criteria and method differences for this paragraph could be found, but instead of going into more detail, a general conclusion on examination is given here. As can be seen in the description made here, overall, examination methods and procedures are often more detailed in the RCC-M than the ASME BPVC. One counterexample of this point is for the hydrotest, where the ASME BPVC requires more than visual inspection after its completion, whereas visual inspection is sufficient in RCC-M, but with an additional amount of tests. This demonstrates a difference in the philosophy of the two codes, more stringent inspection after test versus increased number of tests required.
Table 24—Location in RCC-M of Paragraphs Equivalent to ASME Section III Division 1 NB-5000
ASME Section
III NB-5000 Section Title RCC-M Equivalent
Section(s) Section Title NB-5100 General requirements for
examination Section III MC-2000 MC-3000 and MC-4000
Section IV S-7700 Examens non destructifs des soudures de production (Nondestructive examination of production welds) NB-5200 Required examination of
welds for fabrication and preservice baseline
Section IV S-7700 Examens non destructifs des soudures de production (Nondestructive examination of production welds) NB-5300 Acceptance standards Section IV S-7700 Examens non destructifs des
soudures de production (Nondestructive examination of production welds) NB-5400 Final examination of
vessels Part of Section III
MC-7100 Examens visuels (Visual examination)
NB-5500 Qualification and certification of nondestructive examination personnel
Section IV MC-8000 Qualification et certification des agents de contrôles non destructifs (Qualification and certification of nondestructive control examination personnel)
Table 25—Location in ASME BPVC of Paragraphs Equivalent to RCC-M Paragraphs about Fabrication from Section IV RCC-M
Section IV Section Title ASME Section Title
MC-1000 Essais Mécaniques, Physiques, Physico-Chimiques et Chimiques (Mechanical, Physical, Physico-chemical and Physico-chemical tests)
Section V Subsection A
Section V A-1 General Requirements
MC-2000 Examen par Ultrasons
(Ultrasonic examination) Section V Subsection A
Section V A-5 Ultrasonic examination methods for materials and fabrication
MC-3000 Examen par radiographie
(Radiographic examination) Section V Subsection A
Section V A-2 Radiographic examination MC-4000 Examen par ressuage (Liquid
penetrant examination) Section V Subsection A
Section V A-6 Liquid penetrant examination MC-5000 Examen par magnetoscopie
(Magnetic particle examination)
Section V Subsection A
Section V A-7 Magnetic particle examination
MC-6000 Examen par courants de Foucault des produits tubulaires (Eddy current examination of tubular products)
Section V Subsection A
Section V A-8 Eddy current examination of tubular products
MC-7000 Autres méthodes d’examen
(Other examinations methods) Parts of Section V Subsection A MC-8000 Qualification et certification des
agents de contrôle destructif
Table 26—Radiographic Examination Acceptance Criteria for RCC-M and ASME BPVC
RCC-M Section IV S-7114.3 ASME BPVC Section III Division 1 NB-5320
Table 27—Magnetic Particle Examination Acceptance Criteria for RCC-M and ASME BPVC
RCC-M Section IV S-7114.2 ASME BPVC Section III Division 1 NB-5340
indications criteria 3 or more indications in line, less than 3 mm apart edge to edge or extending more than 20 mm, if this distance is between 3 and 6 mm
4 or more rounded indications in a line separated by 1.5 mm or less edge to edge
Unacceptable surface
indications – Ten or more rounded indication in
any 4000 mm2 of surface with the major dimension of this area not to exceed 150 mm […]
4.8 Pressure Tests