Determining remaining useful life of aging cables in nuclear power plants using non-destructive evaluation

Understanding aging in cable jacketing and insulation is critical to the long-term operation of nuclear power plants. NDE measurements that provide indicators of aging will need to be related to key indicators of cable aging, to enable advances in the in-situ, nondestructive measurement of cable age and prediction of condition-based remaining useful life. Initial measurement options being explored include nondestructive measurement of mechanical and electrical properties that may be correlated to commonly used inspection methods in the field (including EAB and indenter measurements). Initial measurements under controlled conditions indicate promise, though this will need to be evaluated using additional specimens. Also needing further evaluation are sources of variability for these measurements, and approaches to mitigate these sources of variability so that the measurements may be incorporated into advanced NDE methods for future field deployment.