1. Objectives and challenges of NDT

The use of non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques is now commonplace in most industrial environments. The development of these methods began in the 1960s-1970s to meet the demands of sectors such as nuclear power, transport in general and aeronautics in particular, extraction (offshore platforms) and transport (oil and gas pipelines) of oil and gas energy products, and space. It is interesting to note that this development accompanied, and often followed, the parallel development in the medical sector. Initially reserved for branches of industry for which safety was an essential concern, given the impact on the environment and the public that a malfunction of the equipment concerned could have, or given the size of the budgets for the programs involved, these techniques were gradually and immediately applied to the control of the manufacture of mass-produced objects...