Status Report: Welding Task Group Report to NESCC – 23 July 2013 Tom Siewert – NIST

Objectives Review the welding standards (ASME, AWS, etc.) used in nuclear construction Look for inconsistencies between them, and areas where they cause problems for users or lag behind current technology Make recommendations to the standards bodies that would streamline the construction of safer nuclear plants (value to stakeholders)

Team (~ 50 Participants ) About ½ representing industry (mostly chairs of AWS technical subcommittees) About ¼ representing associations About ¼ representing government

Timeline First meeting – November, 2011 – face to face Thirteen meetings since then (12 teleconferences and 1 face to face Status report – July 2013 Final report – Fall, 2013 (target)

Structure WTG – to oversee progress and evaluate recommendations drafted by working groups Working Groups – by technical discipline o Personnel/Qualification Issues – Jeff Fluckiger – Chair o Welding Engineer Certification - Tom Siewert o Inspection Technology - Michael Moles and Eric Sjerve o Fitness for Service - Harold Gray

Top Needs (of End Users) Unnecessary requalification of welding procedures (why do we have to repeat what we have successfully done before?) Keeping individual standards aligned with each other Better certification of welding personnel, especially welding engineers Making better use of the inspection capabilities of phased array UT technology, and Making repair decisions based on fitness for service assessments (rather than workmanship standards)

Near-term Actions Status report has just been prepared (based on discussions up to July 1) Final report being completed