Page 5 of 78 It should be noted that the operating characteristics of GEN IV high temperature structural components involve long service lives (>60 years). As it is not often practical to perform longterm creep tests under these conditions and obtaining creep-fatigue test data required to determine the negligible creep condition is very challenging because of the long test times that are involved, it is a prudent strategy to compensate for the high uncertainty in the negligible creep conditions by implementing NDE procedures to achieve better health/safety management of nuclear power plants. We conducted an investigation of the feasibility of a novel NDE method that is capable of reliable, in-situ monitoring of creep damage and changes in microstructure of materials and components in the field.During creep deformation, material damage accumulates with time as a function of temperature and mechanical stress. The specific form of degradation is material dependent, but in creep-resistant steels it might follow two main types of path [3]. First, there is transformation and precipitation of carbides from the initial microstructure. These precipitations might be in the form of tempered martensite and bainite or pearlite and ferrite, depending on the heat treatment used. Second, at a later stage of the degradation process, the presence of voids and microcracks becomes more evident. For creep-resistant materials used at high temperatures, creep rupture caused by cumulative damage is a common failure mode. The process starts with the nucleation and then growth of cavities at grain boundaries. The cavities tend to gather preferentially on grain boundaries approximately perpendicular to the applied stress [4][5][6]. Eventually these cavities connect together to form microcracks that propagate and join together in a later stage of degradation that leads to ultimate failure. This process leads to anisotropic texture in electric resistivity, which can be exploited for creep monitoring. In effect, the resulting preference in damage orientation introduces small but perceivable path-length differences for electrical current. This induced anisotropy is detectable by directionally sensitive sensors.Most damage detection techniques have sufficient level of sensitivity for the purposes of damage monitoring, but the crucial issue is their selectivity, or the lack of it, to a specific material degradation mechanism. There are numerous variables to which a given sensor can be sensitive including microstructure evolution, carbide precipitation, hardening, plastic strain and elastic strain. Effective creep monitoring requires that the sensor sufficiently suppress changes that are primarily associated with thermally activated microstructural evolution. Even prior to mechanical loading, the material contains various microdefects, such as microcracks, voids, inclusions, and second-phase particles [7]. Also, most steel components used in power plants accumulate an initial amount of cold work during manufacturing. The presence of cold work ind...