Transcripción del resumen del autor. Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) can weaken piping and other components in a nuclear power plant. It's difficult to predict SCC can take 20 years or more to develop and costly to repair. To avoid unexpected SCC, managers at the Fort Calhoun Station nuclear power plant, located on the west bank of the Missouri River ~ 19 miles (31 km) north of Omaha, Nebraska and owned and operated by Omaha Public Power District (OPPD), developed a method to accurately assess the susceptibility of stainless steel (SS) and other alloys to SCC through eddy current inspection. This method, used successfully at the facility for the past 10 years to inspect reactor vessel head nozzles, reactor vessel nozzles, and control element drive mechanism (CEDM) seal housings, has helped the plant to avoid unnecessary replacement of expensive process components, with a savings of nearly $7 million, and significantly reduced plant personnel's radiation exposure. In May 2009, Fort Calhoun Station was honored for developing this method with the nuclear energy industry's B. Ralph Sylvia Best of the Best Award presented by the Nuclear Energy Institute (Washington, DC).

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