KeproVt : underwater robotic system for visual inspection of nuclear reactor internals

Cho, Byung-Hak; Byun, Seung-Hyun; Shin, Chang-Hoon; Yang, Jang-Bum; Song, Sung-il; Oh, Jung-Mook

doi:10.1016/j.nucengdes.2004.03.012

Cited by 36 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…This is a preferable alternative to the labor intensive case where an inspector would need to travel to each target structure. In some cases such as nuclear reactor internals inspection, RVI is the only possible option (Lee et al (2006), Choi et al (2005), Cho et al (2004), Glass et al (1999), West et al (2015b)). While this paper is focused on automatically detecting specific physical features of interest in RVI images including cracks, there has already been some research published focusing on the automated detection of cracks in images from the nuclear industry.…”

Section: Related Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

A new approach for crack detection and sizing in nuclear reactor cores

Devereux

Murray

West

2020

Nuclear Engineering and Design

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Remote Visual Inspection (RVI) of reactors in nuclear power plants allows station operators to assess the health and condition of their plant. In the UK, most nuclear stations are of the Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor (AGR) design. During planned periodic outages, a representative portion of each AGR core is inspected using specialist tools equipped with various sensors including a video camera for RVI. If cracks are observed in the core during data capture, a stitched image of the region needs to be created so that the crack can be analysed and sentenced (classifying the crack morphology, location, orientation and size) before the station is returned to service, provided return to service is justified. Currently, the crack analysis and sizing activities are conducted manually by expert analysts in a laborious process. In this paper, we present a new image processing approach capable of automating aspects of the crack analysis process. Specifically, we describe a set of techniques for quickly and accurately detecting the presence of cracks in AGR fuel channel inspection images. We also present a method for detecting circular channel features known as trepanned holes whose dimensions are known and can thus be used for scaling. The results of applying the proposed techniques are evaluated on image data from real AGR fuel channels and are shown to produce comparable results to those obtained manually. The advantage of the proposed approach is that it is fast, robust and more repeatable than the existing manual approach.

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Section: Related Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

A new approach for crack detection and sizing in nuclear reactor cores

Devereux

Murray

West

2020

Nuclear Engineering and Design

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“…The state equation and the measurement equation of the underwater robot are as Equations (5) and 6, respectively,…”

Section: Integration Navigation and Locationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, many ROVs have been developed for the inspection of dams, [1], ports [2,3], water-filled pipes [4], and some are developed for the nuclear power systems [5], but there is almost no ROV specially designed for inspecting the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) and other water-filled infrastructure of the nuclear power plants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implementation of remotely operated vehicle for direct inspection of reactor pressure vessel and other water-filled infrastructure

Dong

Chou

Fang

et al. 2015

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology

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To reduce the irradiation exposure time of inspection personnel inspecting the reactor pressure vessel and other water-filled infrastructure during overhaul period, a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) is developed to help monitor the underwater environment and salvage small parts like bolts and nuts in the reactor pool and other water-filled infrastructure of the nuclear power plants. It is designed to be compact, light and radiation resistant. The depth control strategy based on fuzzy proportion integration differentiation is proposed for the ROV to suspend at any depth of the reactor pool. And the integrated navigation algorithm based on the Kalman filter fuses data from sensors, including sonar, depth gauge, three-axis accelerometer, three-axis gyroscope and three-axis magnetometer. Radiation testing has been conducted to verify ROV's ability to work in the reactor pool and other water-filled infrastructure under the environment of high irradiation. Eventually, field experiment was conducted in the reactor simulation pool of the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant, and the result verifies the effectiveness of the depth control algorithm, the integrated navigation algorithm and also the leak tightness of the ROV.

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“…Even now, the design of the systems that are going to be used inside nuclear facilities is a difficult task, due to the harsh conditions these should tolerate, as well as the complex design of the installations where they should carry out their task. However, many different systems have been created to perform their duty in specific places inside the nuclear facilities [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7]. Although most of these systems are not able to operate properly if the environment is not prepared specifically for them in order to deploy their task.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Proposal and basic experiments of a piping inspection system based on water-jet

Rico¹,

Hirose²,

Endo³

et al. 2016

2016 IEEE Workshop on Advanced Robotics and Its Social Impacts (ARSO)

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After the incident in Fukushima nuclear plant, the access to several critical areas was damaged. Thus, the monitoring of them turned difficult. In order to keep tracking the status of these areas, it has been proposed to insert sensors through piping that is located nearby the element of interest. However, these pipelines have many restriction, like small diameter, changes of direction, elements that block access, etc. and none of the existing technologies have the capability of going through the piping while carrying the required sensors. In this paper we report a proposal of a new system, whose propulsion is based on water-jet. This device shows good possibilities to fulfill the requirements of carrying out the desired task. The design of this proposal aims to solve the limitations observed in the experiments done with a current technology, which are also described briefly. Basic tests done with the prototype developed are shown as well.

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KeproVt : underwater robotic system for visual inspection of nuclear reactor internals

Cited by 36 publications

References 0 publications

A new approach for crack detection and sizing in nuclear reactor cores

A new approach for crack detection and sizing in nuclear reactor cores

Implementation of remotely operated vehicle for direct inspection of reactor pressure vessel and other water-filled infrastructure

Proposal and basic experiments of a piping inspection system based on water-jet

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