During the periodic equipment inspections stipulated by the above-mentioned order of 10 November 1999 (see point 1.2.3), the licensee uses "non-destructive testing" to look for possible defects on the equipment and the reactor main primary and secondary systems. International work has come to the conclusion that there is a need for systematic demonstration that these inspection methods are able to detect the types of damage looked for.

Article 8 of the order of 10 November 1999 specifies that "the non-destructive testing processes employed operationally on the equipment must be qualified prior to use". The same article states that this qualification will be granted by a qualification board set up within the licensee's structure and recognised as competent and independent of both those directly operating the reactors and those directly involved in developing the processes.

This board, chosen by EDF, is accredited by the French Accreditation Committee (COFRAC) and assesses the extent to which the mock-ups used for the demonstration and the defects introduced into them are representative. On the basis of the qualification results, it then confirms that the testing method does indeed achieve the planned level of performance. A description of the qualification process has also been codified in the in-service surveillance rules for mechanical equipment (RSE-M): as applicable, the aim is either to demonstrate that the inspection technique used is able to detect a degradation described in specifications, or to explain the performance of the method.

At an international level, the qualification requirements differ appreciably from one country to another, with regard to both the procedures and the levels of the testing methods concerned. The licensees are also granted transitional periods of varying lengths for implementation of their respective programmes.

In France, the decision was taken to apply this qualification process to all non-destructive testing procedures used in the main primary and secondary system inspection programmes. This today represents 144 applications which, given their technical similarities, are covered by 76 qualification files.

The large volume of demonstrations linked to these files and the technical difficulties involved, led EDF to ask for additional time for certain files and to propose palliative measures. After analysis of these proposals and on the advice of the Central Committee for Pressure Vessels, the ASN agreed to postpone the deadline to 31 December 2005, with these particular files being the subject of particular scrutiny.

In order to check the availability of safety-related equipment, in particular the safeguard systems to be used in the event of an accident, good operation tests are periodically carried out.

In 2005, the ASN continued to review changes to the periodic test programmes. This chiefly involved:

• review of changes to the periodic test programmes for the reactors of the CP0 plant series with "PTD lot VD2" status;
• approval of the periodic test programmes for the CPY plant series with "PTD lot 93-2000" status;
• review of changes to the periodic test programmes associated with the second ten-yearly outages for the 1300 MWe reactors;
• review of changes to the periodic test programmes for the 1450 MWe reactors with "PTD end of series" status.