A symposium on nondestructive testing (NDT) standards reflecting widespread current concern with this area was held at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) May 19-21, 1976. The symposium was cosponsored by the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), the American Society for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT), with the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) cooperating. The meeting provided the first general forum encompassing discussions on the processes by which NDT codes, standards, and specifications become accepted, and discussions on the status and needs that exist in all NDT methods. Major themes included standards documents, the status of standards in the major methods used in NDT and future directions.