On March 10, at the 13th Annual Research Symposium in Austin, TX, the American Society for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT) Certification Management Council (CMC) approved a revision to the requirements for ASNT NDT Level III and the ASNT Central Certification Program (ACCP) Level II and Professional Level III renewal points. The revision includes additional means of earning recertification points and increases the points necessary to renew certification.

These changes became effective May 1, for personnel certified on or after May 1, 2004. Current certificate holders who have certificates that expire on or before April 30, 2009, may renew with 6 points, which was the published requirement at the beginning of the current five-year certification cycle.

For the past several years the ASNT CMC has reviewed the ASNT NDT Level III renewal requirements and has worked on the development of specific renewal and recertification requirements for ACCP Level II and Level III. The review included discussions on alternatives for earning points, comparison of the number of points required by other certification programs (both NDT and otherwise), and the purpose of having a point system instead of requiring only recertification by examination.

Based on the review, it was the consensus of the CMC that 15 points for Level II and 25 points for Level III were both reasonable and obtainable without creating a financial difficulty for certificate holders and that the new system would adequately demonstrate that certificate holders were staying current in the field of NDT.

In addition to the existing points options, the following changes and additions were made:

• NDT teachers can now use their training time to earn up to 16 of the required 25 points;

• Documented computer or Web-based NDT training may be used to earn up to 10 points;

• Authoring technical tips in an NDT-related technical journal will earn 1.5 points;

• Certification through other technical societies can be counted for up to 2 points;

• Annual ASNT membership can be counted for up to 5 points per certification cycle;

• Serving as examination Monitor or Assistant can earn up to 6 points per cycle;

• Performance of external NDT audits can earn up to 8 points per cycle;

• Receiving a patent for an NDT-related product will earn 4 points per patent.

Certificate holders will have to fill out the proper renewal or recertification application, submit fees, send in a visual acuity form within 12 months of the current expiration date and document the correct number of points for the applicable program and level. The renewal/recertification document lists the specific details for each program.

If certificate holders do not earn enough points to renew, they can renew by examination. Renewal examinations must be taken prior to the certificate holder's current expiration date. If the examinations are not taken prior to expiration, certification will lapse and the full set of examinations will have to be taken to regain certification. NDT

For more information, visit www.asnt.org.