NDT Training in New Orleans, LA — Online & Onsite ASNT Courses
Self-paced online NDT training to ASNT SNT-TC-1A, open to candidates worldwide. Start any time.
Local price for your country, pay with your local card, and course access opens automatically.
Atlantis NDT delivers employer-based NDT training in New Orleans, USA: ASNT Level III-led Level I and Level II courses, examinations and certification records issued under your company's SNT-TC-1A or CP-189 written practice. New Orleans NDT training for Gulf Coast refineries, petrochemical plants, and offshore operations. Theory is self-paced online with ASNT NDT Level III support, and practicals run in the Practical NDT simulator and in person at your facility — there is no requirement to send technicians to a school.
Two training routes for New Orleans, LA
I'm an individual technician
You want Level I or Level II in one method, or you are preparing for ASNT Level III. Theory is online and primarily self-paced, with access from the moment you enrol; your employer (or the employer you are joining) certifies you under its written practice, and the practical examination is administered by an ASNT Level III on real specimens. Send a course enquiry or read NDT training online first.
I'm training a company team
You need a crew trained, examined and certified to your SNT-TC-1A written practice, onsite at your facility or blended with online theory, with Level III oversight and an audit-ready file. See the SNT-TC-1A certification programme for NDT companies or request a company team training quote. We reply within one business day.
Employer-based certification under SNT-TC-1A
In the United States, NDT personnel are qualified and certified by their employer under a written practice that follows ASNT Recommended Practice SNT-TC-1A, or the ANSI/ASNT CP-189 standard. Atlantis NDT works inside that structure: an ASNT NDT Level III reviews or authors your written practice, delivers the classroom hours SNT-TC-1A recommends for each method and level, administers the general, specific and practical examinations, and signs the certification records your customers and auditors ask to see. See how ASNT certification works and SNT-TC-1A training and certification for employers.
Methods and levels delivered in New Orleans
Level I and Level II courses in ultrasonic testing (UT, including thickness and shear-wave weld examination), phased array UT (PAUT), radiographic testing and film interpretation (RT), magnetic particle testing (MT), liquid penetrant testing (PT), visual testing (VT) and eddy current testing (ET), each built to the SNT-TC-1A training-hour tables and examined against your procedures on your equipment. Level I and Level II classroom hours follow the SNT-TC-1A recommendations for each method; Level III candidates are prepared for the ASNT Basic and Method examinations.
What a New Orleans employer receives
A written practice reviewed or authored to SNT-TC-1A 2024 or CP-189, course records showing the hours delivered per technician, examination papers and graded practicals with the specimens used, a certification record per person per method, and a recertification calendar. The file is prepared to survive a customer audit — the question an auditor asks in New Orleans is not where the technician trained but whether the employer's certification record is complete. Ongoing Level III oversight is available through outsourced ASNT Level III consulting.
Delivery in New Orleans
Self-paced online theory with ASNT NDT Level III support, with practical sessions at your plant, yard or shop on your own equipment; for company teams, on-site training with Atlantis NDT bringing calibration blocks, reference specimens and examination materials. See employer-sponsored NDT training and NDT training across the US.
Talk to an ASNT Level III about training in New Orleans
Send the methods, levels and head-count you need certified and, if you have one, your current written practice. An ASNT NDT Level III will map the training hours and examinations required and return a tailored proposal. Request a training proposal; we reply within one business day.
In more detail
A Level II certificate rests on three separate examinations: a general exam on the method's underlying physics and equipment, a specific exam on the employer's own procedures and product forms, and a practical exam demonstrating the technique on real specimens. SNT-TC-1A recommends passing grades of 70% general, 70% specific, and an 80% composite average across all three.
New Orleans sits at the foot of the River Parishes petrochemical corridor running upriver toward Baton Rouge, one of the densest concentrations of refining and chemical processing capacity in North America, and close to Port Fourchon, the onshore logistics base that services most Gulf of Mexico deepwater oil and gas production, along with the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the only US terminal able to receive fully loaded supertankers. The Port of New Orleans itself moves heavy steel, project cargo and fabricated modules that get examined before and after shipment. Layered on top of that industrial density is a coastal, hurricane-exposed, high-humidity environment that accelerates corrosion under insulation and atmospheric corrosion on external piping and tankage — which is why thickness survey frequency in this region often runs tighter than the code minimum rather than to it. A technician certifying here is certifying into that combination of asset density and corrosion severity, not into a generic Gulf Coast market.
| Exam component | What it actually tests | Set by | SNT-TC-1A recommended passing grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| General | The method's underlying physics, equipment, controls and standard terminology — content that does not change between employers | SNT-TC-1A body of knowledge for the method | 70% |
| Specific | The employer's own written procedures, equipment models, product forms and acceptance criteria | Employer's Written Practice | 70% |
| Practical | Hands-on calibration, examination, interpretation and reporting on real or representative specimens | Employer's Written Practice, administered by a Level III | 80% |
| Composite (all three) | Overall competency combining demonstrated knowledge and skill | SNT-TC-1A recommended minimum | 80% average |
What a compliant Written Practice actually documents
The Written Practice referenced throughout this page is not a policy statement — it is a detailed technical document, and understanding what it actually contains explains why an auditor asks for it before the certificate. A compliant Written Practice under SNT-TC-1A sets out, per method and per level: the education and experience prerequisites a candidate must hold before sitting for certification; the minimum classroom training hours; the structure and content of the general, specific and practical examinations, including minimum passing grades; the frequency of the near-vision acuity and color-contrast examination; the interval at which certification must be renewed and whether renewal requires reexamination or documented evidence of continued satisfactory performance; and the conditions under which a certification can be suspended, revoked or reinstated. It is signed by the employer's Level III, who carries responsibility for everything in it.
SNT-TC-1A is a recommended practice, not a mandatory standard, so an employer is free to adopt its recommended tables as written or to modify them — shortening a recertification interval, adding a method-specific practical exercise, raising a passing grade — provided the modification is documented and defensible. That flexibility is the entire point of the SNT-TC-1A model, and it is also why two Level II certificates issued by two different Gulf Coast employers, even in the same method, are not necessarily built to the same requirement. Companies without an in-house Level III typically engage an outsourced Level III to write and administer it, which does not change what the document has to contain. A client auditor reading the Written Practice is checking exactly that: not whether a certificate exists, but whether the document behind it holds up.
The three-part examination and what each part is actually checking
Every method-level certification under SNT-TC-1A rests on three separate examinations, and conflating them is a common misunderstanding among candidates preparing for a first Level II. The general examination tests the fundamentals of the method itself — the underlying physics, the equipment and its controls, standard terminology and reference procedures — content that does not change from one employer to the next and that maps onto the broader body of NDT standards referenced across every code stack an inspector works under. The specific examination tests the candidate against the employer's own written procedures: the equipment models actually in use, the product forms and material thicknesses actually examined, and the acceptance criteria the employer's contracts actually reference. The practical examination is a hands-on demonstration — calibrating the equipment, examining a real or representative specimen, interpreting the indication, and producing a report that would stand in a client's file. SNT-TC-1A recommends passing grades of 70% for the general and specific examinations and 80% for the practical, with an 80% composite average across all three; an employer's Written Practice can set a higher bar but rarely a lower one.
Recertification follows the same three-part logic on a longer interval. SNT-TC-1A leaves the exact renewal period to the employer's Written Practice but recommends it not exceed five years, and requires either reexamination or documented evidence of continued satisfactory performance in the method at renewal, on top of an annual near-vision acuity and color-contrast check that runs independently of the certification cycle itself. A technician whose eyesight fails that annual check is not qualified to interpret indications regardless of how recent the certificate is.
Where Louisiana's NDE demand actually concentrates
The industrial geography around New Orleans is not evenly spread, and a training programme built for this market benefits from following where the work actually sits rather than treating the whole Gulf Coast as one undifferentiated zone. Running north from New Orleans along the Mississippi River, the River Parishes — St. Charles, St. John the Baptist, St. James and neighbouring parishes — carry one of the densest concentrations of refining and petrochemical processing capacity in North America, all of it running scheduled turnarounds that pull heavily on ultrasonic thickness surveys, shear-wave weld examination and radiography. South and west of the city, Port Fourchon functions as the onshore logistics base for the large majority of Gulf of Mexico deepwater oil and gas production — subsea trees, risers, platform modules and supply vessels moving through it all carry inspection requirements before deployment and after recovery. The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the only US deepwater terminal able to receive a fully loaded supertanker without lightering, sits offshore from the same corridor. Closer to the city, the Port of New Orleans and the marine fabrication and repair yards along the lower Mississippi examine hull structure, cranes and heavy steel to ABS and USCG survey requirements, where magnetic particle carries most of the volume on fatigue-critical welds.
Layered across all of it is the coastal climate: prolonged humidity, salt-laden air and hurricane exposure that together accelerate corrosion under insulation on piping and vessels, and atmospheric corrosion on unlagged steel. That is a genuine, measurable driver of inspection frequency in this specific region, not a generic Gulf Coast talking point, and it is one reason experienced Louisiana inspectors are valued for judgment about where to look, not only for a certificate that says they are allowed to. Atlantis runs this same on-site, follow-the-work model across other Gulf Coast and national training locations, because the logic — go to the crew rather than make the crew travel — does not change with geography.
Louisiana's LNG build-out downriver in Plaquemines Parish and along the western part of the state adds a further, distinct source of demand: new-construction inspection on liquefaction trains and cryogenic piping calls for radiography and phased array on welds that will operate at temperatures far below anything a typical refinery unit sees, which is a different qualification emphasis than a turnaround crew doing routine thickness surveys. A New Orleans-based technician who wants to work that scope needs method qualification that specifically covers the applicable code — usually ASME Section VIII and B31.3 with project-specific procedure qualification — rather than assuming a general Level II covers it automatically.
Corporate cohorts versus individual enrollment — what actually changes
The practical differences between an employer-sponsored cohort and an individual signing up alone go beyond who pays. A corporate cohort is scheduled around the client's own production calendar — often built to land before a turnaround window rather than on a fixed public calendar — and it trains against the employer's own Written Practice from day one, using the employer's own equipment models and, where possible, specimens that resemble what the crew will actually examine in production. Every technician in the cohort finishes with a personnel file built the same way: same procedures, same Level III administering the exams, same documentation format. That consistency is what a client audit is actually looking for when it reviews a contractor's technician roster — not that certificates exist, but that they were issued under one coherent, defensible process rather than assembled from whatever each technician happened to bring from a previous employer.
An individual enrolling alone does not get that head start. Training can be completed online, primarily self-paced, with practice in the Practical NDT simulator, but the certificate itself still has to be issued by an employer against that employer's Written Practice — SNT-TC-1A does not permit a training provider to certify someone into a vacuum. That means the practical bottleneck for an individual is rarely the training itself; it is finding the employer relationship that will certify against documented on-the-job hours once training is complete. Candidates who line up an employer first and training second generally reach a working Level II certificate faster than candidates who train first and look for work afterward, simply because the experience clock cannot start until the employment does. For a crew with a turnaround date already on the calendar, the useful next step is a direct conversation about planning crew training rather than a generic quote request.
Procurement looks different too. A corporate cohort is typically arranged well ahead of a turnaround window and locked into a training and outage schedule set months in advance, while an individual candidate can enrol online at any time of year, with access from the moment you enrol. Neither path is a shortcut around the underlying experience requirement, but a company sending a full crew through the same cohort captures a second benefit an individual cannot: the Level III running the exams already knows the plant's own procedures and equipment, so specific and practical exam content is built around exactly what the crew will be examining on Monday morning rather than a generic industry scenario.
What passing grade does SNT-TC-1A recommend for a Level II examination?
SNT-TC-1A recommends a minimum of 70% on the general examination, 70% on the specific examination, and 80% on the practical examination, with an 80% composite average required across all three. An employer's Written Practice can raise those thresholds — some Gulf Coast operators require a higher composite for methods tied to fitness-for-service decisions — but SNT-TC-1A discourages setting them lower, since the recommended grades already represent a floor rather than a target.
How often does a Level II certificate need to be renewed?
SNT-TC-1A leaves the exact interval to the employer's Written Practice rather than fixing one, but recommends it not exceed five years and requires either reexamination or documented evidence of continued satisfactory performance in the method at renewal. Layered on top of that cycle is an annual near-vision acuity and colour-contrast check that runs independently — a technician can hold a current certificate and still be pulled from interpretation duty on a failed vision test.
Why does a coastal climate like New Orleans change inspection frequency?
Prolonged humidity, salt-laden air and repeated hurricane exposure accelerate corrosion under insulation on piping and vessels, and atmospheric corrosion on unlagged steel, faster than a code-minimum inspection interval assumes. Operators in this region commonly shorten ultrasonic thickness survey frequency below the API 510 or API 570 code minimum in response to actual measured corrosion rates, not because the code requires it — a judgment that rests on inspection history, not on the certificate alone.
Does a corporate cohort still produce individually issued certificates?
Yes. Each technician in a cohort is examined and certified individually against the same employer Written Practice — there is no shared or group certificate under SNT-TC-1A. What a cohort standardizes is the process behind those individual certificates: the same Level III administering every exam, the same procedures, equipment and specimens, and the same documentation format, so the resulting personnel records are consistent across the whole crew rather than reflecting whatever each technician's prior employer happened to document.
What role does Port Fourchon play in Louisiana's NDE demand?
Port Fourchon is the onshore logistics base supporting the large majority of Gulf of Mexico deepwater oil and gas production, so the subsea trees, risers, platform modules and supply vessels staged through it all carry method-level inspection requirements before deployment and again after recovery for repair or requalification. That steady traffic is one reason ultrasonic and magnetic particle demand in this region tracks offshore activity as closely as it tracks refinery turnaround schedules.
National programmes behind this New Orleans, LA page
This page covers NDT training for employers and technicians in New Orleans, LA. The national programmes live on their own pages: NDT training (every method and level, for candidates worldwide), NDT training online, SNT-TC-1A training and certification, SNT-TC-1A certification programme for NDT companies, ASNT Level III training and ASNT Level III consulting. Hours by method and level are in the training requirements matrix; practise on the Practical NDT simulator.
NDT training in New Orleans: how it works for New Orleans employers and technicians
Short answer: NDT training for New Orleans is delivered self-paced online or onsite at your own plant, yard or shop. Atlantis NDT has no classroom in the city. An ASNT NDT Level III runs Level I, II and III courses in UT, PAUT, TOFD, RT, MT, PT, VT and ET built on ASNT SNT-TC-1A, then helps your company examine and certify technicians under its own written practice. We reply within one business day.
That short answer hides the part most people searching for NDT classes in New Orleans have not been told: in the United States nobody hands you a national NDT licence. Under SNT-TC-1A your employer certifies you, against a written practice that its Level III signs. Training is one ingredient. The others are documented on-the-job experience, three examinations (general, specific and practical), a vision test and the employer's signature. A course certificate from any provider, including us, is evidence of training hours. It is not, on its own, permission to perform and interpret inspections.
For a New Orleans contractor, the useful question is therefore not where to find a class but how to move a crew through the whole chain (hours, experience, examinations, paperwork) before the next turnaround at a River Parishes refinery or the next vessel comes onto a West Bank dry dock. For an individual, it means lining up an employer, or a realistic route to one, early, because the experience clock only runs while you are working in the method under certified supervision.
We work with both groups. Employers get onsite or self-paced online courses, Level III examination support and written-practice work. Individuals can study self-paced online theory and prepare for employer examinations, while the practical examination is always carried out on real specimens in front of a qualified examiner. Request a New Orleans training quote with the methods, levels and head-count you have in mind.
ASNT Level I, II and III courses available in New Orleans
Every course below is built on the SNT-TC-1A body of knowledge for the method and taught by or under an ASNT NDT Level III. What changes from city to city is the emphasis: which product forms, which codes and which acceptance criteria the practical exercises lean on. For New Orleans that means process piping and vessels in the refinery and chemical corridor, structural and hull steel in the marine yards, and pipeline girth welds feeding the terminals.
| Method | Levels | What New Orleans employers use it for | Prerequisite |
|---|---|---|---|
| UT (ultrasonic testing) | I, II, III | Thickness surveys on process piping and vessels during River Parishes turnarounds; shear-wave weld examination on new-construction piping; hull and tank plate gauging in the marine yards | Level I: the education and experience entry rules in your written practice. Level II: Level I plus documented method experience |
| PAUT (phased array UT) | II, III | Weld examination on petrochemical and LNG new construction where the code and owner allow UT in place of RT; corrosion mapping of elbows and nozzles | Conventional UT Level II strongly recommended first |
| TOFD (time-of-flight diffraction) | II, III | Heavy-wall vessel and column seam welds in fabrication shops; height sizing of planar flaws found during turnarounds | UT Level II |
| RT (radiographic testing) | I, II, III | Pipe welds in fabrication shops and pipeline tie-ins, vessel seams, film and digital image interpretation | Anyone handling sources also needs Louisiana radiographer certification (separate from NDT certification) |
| MT (magnetic particle) | I, II | Structural welds on offshore modules, crane pedestals, lifting gear and fatigue-sensitive hull details | None beyond written-practice entry rules |
| PT (liquid penetrant) | I, II | Stainless and nickel-alloy piping in chemical plants, machined non-magnetic parts, weld prep and back-gouge checks | None beyond written-practice entry rules |
| VT (visual testing) | I, II | Weld visual on every job, fit-up and root checks, coating and corrosion condition surveys on tanks and structures | None beyond written-practice entry rules |
| ET (eddy current) | I, II, III | Heat-exchanger and condenser tube inspection during turnarounds and power-plant outages; surface crack detection through coatings | None; prior UT or MT experience helps |
UT Level I and II. The course runs from sound physics and transducer selection to calibration on reference blocks, straight-beam thickness work, angle-beam weld scanning and reporting. For New Orleans cohorts the practical exercises weight corrosion surveys on piping with insulation removed, because that is where much of the region's UT volume sits: coastal humidity and salt air make corrosion under insulation a constant finding, and owners often shorten survey intervals in response to measured corrosion rates. Angle-beam work covers the ASME Section V techniques that fabrication shops and owner specifications in the corridor refer to. See UT Level 2 practice questions for a sense of how the general examination is pitched.
PAUT and TOFD. These are Level II and III courses for technicians who already hold conventional UT. They cover focal laws, sectorial and linear scans, encoded scanning, setup files, flaw sizing and data review. On the Louisiana side of the Gulf Coast, advanced UT demand comes from two directions: new construction where an owner has accepted UT in place of radiography to keep crews working around the clock without radiation barricades, and in-service corrosion mapping where a grid of manual thickness readings would miss localised loss.
RT Level I and II. The course covers radiation physics, exposure calculation, film and digital techniques, image quality indicators, and above all interpretation: telling slag from porosity from lack of fusion on real radiographs. Interpretation is what employers here pay for. The course is not a radiation-safety licence; handling Ir-192 or Se-75 sources in Louisiana is controlled separately by the state (see below).
MT, PT and VT. These are the workhorse methods in the marine and structural yards, and they are often the first certifications a new technician earns. Courses cover magnetisation technique, yoke and prod work, wet and dry particles, penetrant process control, dwell and developer, and the visual acuity and lighting conditions the examination depends on. VT training includes weld profile, undercut and reinforcement gauging against common acceptance criteria.
ET. Eddy current training covers impedance-plane interpretation, probe selection and calibration, with the practical steered toward tubing (bobbin probes on heat-exchanger bundles) or surface work, depending on what your crew does. Turnaround exchanger work is steady demand in the corridor.
Level III. For technicians and supervisors aiming at Level III, we run preparation for the ASNT Basic and Method examinations and cover procedure writing, which is the skill that matters once you hold the certificate. See ASNT Level III training.
SNT-TC-1A certification path in New Orleans, step by step
- Your employer adopts a written practice. This controlled document, based on SNT-TC-1A, sets the training hours, experience hours, examination content, passing grades, vision requirements and recertification interval for each method and level. If your company does not have one, that is step zero (see the Level III section below).
- Classroom training. You complete the formal training hours your written practice sets for the method and level, self-paced online, onsite or blended. The training-requirements matrix shows the SNT-TC-1A recommended figures by method and level; your written practice can require more.
- On-the-job experience. You log hours performing the method under a certified Level II or Level III. This is usually the slowest part and cannot be done in a classroom or a simulator.
- General examination. A written test on the method's principles, equipment and terminology.
- Specific examination. A written test on your employer's procedures, equipment, codes and acceptance criteria. For a New Orleans refinery contractor this might mean API-referenced thickness procedures and B31.3 acceptance; for a yard it might mean ABS or AWS D1.1 criteria.
- Practical examination. You demonstrate the method on real specimens with known discontinuities, write the report and have it graded by a Level III or a qualified examiner working under one.
- Vision examination. A near-vision acuity test and a colour-contrast check, repeated at the interval your written practice sets (near vision is at least annual under SNT-TC-1A).
- Certification. Your employer's certifying authority signs the certification record. It is valid while you work for that employer and within the stated period.
- Recertification. At the interval in the written practice (SNT-TC-1A recommends no more than five years), you are recertified by examination or by documented continuing performance, as the written practice allows.
More detail on how the pieces fit together is on our SNT-TC-1A training and certification page.
Self-paced online or onsite NDT training for New Orleans crews
We are specific about delivery because it matters for scheduling. There are three ways we run training for New Orleans:
- Self-paced online modules. Self-paced modules with ASNT Level III support, covering the theory portion of Level I and II courses and Level III preparation. Useful for technicians rotating between sites in St. Charles, St. John and St. James parishes, and for individuals who cannot leave work for a week. See online NDT training.
- Onsite at your facility. An ASNT Level III-led team comes to your plant, shop or yard, teaches on your equipment and examines on specimens that look like your work. This is how most employer cohorts run. See corporate NDT training.
- Blended. Theory online, then a concentrated practical block onsite with examinations. This suits contractors who cannot pull a whole crew off rotation at once.
Timing is the part local employers care about most. Refinery and chemical turnarounds along the river cluster in the spring and autumn, and the Atlantic hurricane season runs from June through November, which both disrupts schedules and creates urgent post-storm inspection work. The best windows for onsite training are usually the weeks just before a turnaround (so certificates are in hand when the gate opens) or quieter periods between campaigns. Tell us your outage and campaign calendar and we will build around it. Ask about onsite training for your New Orleans crew.
One honest limit: practical examinations cannot be done remotely. Whatever the delivery mode, the practical is done hands-on, with real equipment on real specimens.
Where NDT technicians work in New Orleans
The New Orleans metro is an unusual NDT market because several very different asset owners sit within an hour's drive, and each brings its own codes and gate requirements.
Refining and chemicals along the Mississippi. The corridor starts in the city's own backyard, with refineries in St. Bernard Parish at Chalmette and Meraux, and continues upriver through the Norco and St. Charles Parish complexes, the chemical plants around Hahnville and Taft, and the large refinery at Garyville in St. John the Baptist Parish, on toward Baton Rouge. Inspection here is driven by in-service codes: API 510 for vessels, API 570 for piping and API 653 for tanks. Owner inspectors often hold API individual certifications, and many employers also ask for them, but the NDT itself is performed by method-certified technicians. New construction and repairs run to ASME Section VIII and B31.3, with methods defined in ASME Section V.
Marine, offshore and port work. The Port of New Orleans, the West Bank yards and the offshore support bases toward Houma and Port Fourchon generate MT, UT gauging and VT on hulls, deck machinery, cranes and offshore modules. Classification society (ABS) and U.S. Coast Guard survey requirements set the acceptance side, and AWS D1.1 governs much of the structural fabrication.
Pipelines and terminals. Crude, product and gas lines crossing south Louisiana feed terminals, the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port and export facilities. Girth-weld radiography and increasingly automated UT on new lines follow API 1104, with PHMSA rules under 49 CFR Parts 192 and 195 behind the operators.
Power and nuclear. Entergy's Waterford 3 nuclear plant at Killona in St. Charles Parish runs outages that pull in outage-support NDT, and nuclear in-service inspection follows ASME Section XI. Be clear-eyed: nuclear UT often requires performance demonstration qualification that sits on top of SNT-TC-1A training, and utilities set their own access requirements.
Aerospace and heavy manufacturing. NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans East builds large launch-vehicle structures, and the tenants and suppliers around it work to aerospace specifications. Some of those employers also ask for NAS 410 qualification, which is a different scheme; our training is SNT-TC-1A-based.
Bridges and public works. The Crescent City Connection, the Huey P. Long Bridge and the long causeway and trestle structures around Lake Pontchartrain are steel and concrete assets that owners inspect on cycles. Bridge weld work typically follows AWS D1.5.
Radiography licensing in Louisiana. Louisiana is an NRC Agreement State, and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) regulates radioactive material and radiation-producing machines under LAC 33:XV. LDEQ itself certifies industrial radiographers, trainees and instructors, and anyone performing industrial radiography with sources or X-ray equipment in the state must hold that certification. Out-of-state companies working in Louisiana use LDEQ's reciprocity process. This radiation-safety certification is completely separate from SNT-TC-1A certification in RT: a New Orleans radiographer typically needs both, one for the right to handle the source safely and one for the competence to take and interpret the image.
What employers here typically ask for at the gate. A current method certification under the contractor's written practice, the written practice itself on file, training and experience records, a current vision record, site safety orientations, a TWIC card for port and maritime facilities, and for RT the LDEQ radiographer card. Salary expectations vary widely by method and sector; our NDT salary guide summarises public sources rather than quoting local figures we cannot verify.
Level III services and written practices for New Orleans NDT companies
Many small and mid-sized inspection companies in the metro, including crews spun out of larger contractors, run without a full-time Level III. That works until a refinery QA auditor asks for the written practice, the examination records and the Level III's credentials, and the file is thin. We help in three ways:
- Written practice development or review. We write or audit your SNT-TC-1A written practice so it matches the methods you actually perform and the codes your clients cite. See written practice development.
- Examination administration. General, specific and practical examinations prepared and graded under ASNT Level III oversight, with records filed the way auditors expect.
- Procedure writing and technique approval. Method procedures aligned to ASME Section V, API 1104, AWS D1.1 or client specifications, reviewed by a Level III.
This is the same framework described on our SNT-TC-1A guidance page. Book a Level III consultation if your written practice is overdue for review or you are bidding work that asks for one.
Practise before the practical exam
The Practical NDT 3D simulator lets trainees practise 12 method families in 12 virtual workplaces, including an NDT lab, a welding workshop, an aircraft hangar, an oil and gas site and a storage tank. For New Orleans trainees, the oil and gas site and storage tank scenes are the closest match to corridor work, and the welding workshop suits yard and fabrication crews. It is a place to rehearse setups, scanning patterns and decision-making between classes. It is practice only: it does not replace hands-on training time, logged experience or the practical examination on real specimens.
Your instructor
Courses are led by Anoop Rayavarapu, ASNT NDT Level III and founder of Atlantis NDT. He sets the course content, oversees examinations and reviews written practices and procedures for employer clients.
Frequently asked questions about NDT training in New Orleans
How do I get NDT certified in New Orleans?
Get hired by, or sponsored by, an employer that works under an SNT-TC-1A written practice; complete the classroom training hours for your method and level; log supervised on-the-job experience; pass the general, specific and practical examinations and the vision test; then your employer certifies you. We provide the training, exam preparation and Level III support in that chain, online or at your employer's site.
Can I take NDT training online in Louisiana?
Yes, for theory. Self-paced online modules cover the classroom portion of Level I and II courses and Level III preparation. The practical training and practical examination must be hands-on, which is why we pair online theory with onsite practical blocks for employers.
How long does UT Level 2 training take?
It depends on your written practice. SNT-TC-1A recommends minimum classroom hours and experience hours for UT Level I and Level II, and experience is usually the constraint, not class time. Check the training-requirements matrix for the recommended figures, then count what you already have logged.
Do I need a license for radiography in Louisiana?
Yes. Anyone performing industrial radiography in Louisiana needs an industrial radiographer certification issued by LDEQ, and the company needs an LDEQ radioactive material licence or machine registration. That is separate from SNT-TC-1A RT certification, which covers technique and interpretation competence.
What does NDT training cost in New Orleans?
We do not publish prices, because cost depends on the method, the level, group size, whether delivery is online or onsite, and whether you also need written-practice or examination support. Send us the details and we reply within one business day.
Is ASNT certification recognised by New Orleans employers?
SNT-TC-1A is the framework most US refinery, chemical, pipeline and fabrication contracts in the region reference. Recognition works through the employer: a client accepts your certification because it trusts the certifying employer's written practice and records. Some offshore or international contracts also name ISO 9712 or other schemes; we do not train to those.
Does my certification move with me if I change contractors?
Not automatically. SNT-TC-1A certification belongs to the employer. A new employer can accept your documented training and experience, but it examines and certifies you under its own written practice.
Which method should I start with to work the river refineries?
UT (thickness first, then angle beam) and VT are the most common starting points for refinery work, with RT if you are joining a radiography crew. For yard and offshore fabrication work, MT and VT come first.
Can you train a whole crew before a turnaround?
Yes. Send us the turnaround date and the certifications needed at the gate, and we plan theory, practical blocks and examinations backwards from that date.
Do you teach LDEQ radiation safety?
No. Our RT course covers technique and interpretation under SNT-TC-1A. Radiation-safety training and the state radiographer examination follow Louisiana's own requirements, and your radiation safety officer arranges them.
Can I practise at home before the practical exam?
You can rehearse setups and scanning logic in the Practical NDT simulator, but your practical exam will be on real specimens and equipment, and experience hours must come from actual work.
Do you offer Level III preparation for New Orleans technicians?
Yes, self-paced online preparation for the ASNT Basic and Method examinations, plus procedure-writing practice. See Level III training and the full training catalogue.
Ask about training for your New Orleans team - we reply within one business day.
Part of NDT training in Louisiana, NDT training in the USA and the wider NDT training programme at Atlantis NDT.
Practise between sessions
Free practice tests and downloadable question packs show where you stand, and Practical NDT lets you practise scans on a 3D simulator before the practical examination.
Start NDT training any time of year
Enrolment is open throughout the year. Courses are primarily self-paced, so you can join at any time and work through the learning material around your schedule.
- Monthly starts
- Portal access opens the moment you enrol, at any time of year.
- Level III support
- Level III support is available throughout the year for course clarifications. Confirm the contact method and arrangements when you enrol.
- Practical arrangements
- Practicals are done in the Practical NDT simulator and in person at your employer’s facility, on its equipment and parts. Simulator practice supports training; it does not replace supervised experience, the practical examination or employer certification.