Pete Riccardella received his PhD. from Carnegie Mellon University in 1973 and is an expert in the area of structural integrity of nuclear power plant components. He co-founded Structural Integrity Associates (SIA) in 1983, and has contributed to the diagnosis and correction of several critical industry problems, including:

• Feedwater nozzle cracking in BWRs

• Stress corrosion cracking in BWR piping and internals

• Irradiation embrittlement of nuclear reactor vessels

• Primary water stress corrosion cracking in PWRs

• Turbine-generator cracking and failures.

Dr. Riccardella has been principal investigator for a number of EPRI projects that led to advancements and cost savings for the industry. These include the FatiguePro fatigue monitoring system, the RRingLife software for turbine-generator retaining ring evaluation, RI-ISI methodology for nuclear power plants, and several PFM applications to plant cracking issues. He has led major failure analysis efforts on electric utility equipment ranging from transmission towers to turbine-generator components and has testified as an expert witness in litigation related to such failures.

He has also been a prime mover on the ASME Nuclear ISI Code in the development of evaluation procedures and acceptance standards for flaws detected during inspections. In 2002 he became an honorary member of the ASME Section XI Subcommittee on ISI, after serving for over twenty years as a member of that committee.

In 2003, Dr. Riccardella was elected a Fellow of ASME International.