Nuclear Industry First AI Powered Ultrasonic Inspection in Ringhals, Sweden

ESPOO, Finland, June 3, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) was for the first time used to evaluate data in a qualified ultrasonic inspection during outage at Ringhals power plant this week (Vattenfal, Sweden). The system has been developed by Trueflaw (Finland) and EPRI (USA) and recently received qualification for use in ultrasonic inspection from non-destructive evaluation (NDE) of pressure vessel head penetrations. The inspection vendor in question is Wesdyne (Sweden) and the qualification is issued by the Swedish Qualification Centre (SQC).

Critical components in power plants are inspected during scheduled outages using various non-destructive techniques, including ultrasonic testing. Inspections are used to detect any possible service induced degradation. These inspections generate vast amounts of data that need to be reviewed by highly skilled human experts. This critical task is time consuming and difficult.

Automated data analysis with AI works alongside the human experts and makes the inspections more efficient and more reliable. AI is used to pre-screen the data and to highlight any potential defects found. The human experts then review these areas of interest and make the final decisions. The analysis, that took the human inspector alone hours will be reduced to minutes with help of the AI. At the same time, the evaluation is made more consistent and the risk of human error is reduced. Human experts still have the final say and the AI is there to help concentrate their effort to make the data analysis faster and more dependable.

"AI/ML has proven itself as a reliable and valuable tool for non-destructive evaluation. The first use in qualified nuclear inspection is an important milestone and shows AI can meet the highest of reliability and regulatory requirements.", CEO Iikka Virkkunen from Trueflaw concludes.  

Trueflaw Ltd. (trueflaw.com) is a company based in Espoo, Finland that specializes in AI-based defect detection systems and reliability of non-destructive evaluation (NDE). Founded in 2001, Trueflaw started out making cracked samples used to test and develop NDE reliability, then expanded to provide statistical reliability evaluation services and now leverages this expertise to provide industry leading AI-based automated data evaluation systems to wide range of industries.

Contact:         

Iikka Virkkunen         
[email protected] 
+358456354415
Trueflaw Ltd.

SOURCE Trueflaw Ltd.