Are the pipelines in your plant at risk of failure?
Nuclear and Thermal Power Stations:
Scientists have always known that the greatest risk in operating a nuclear reactor is the loss-of-coolant accident. If for some reason the flow of water is stopped or slowed, (for example if a cooling water pipe breaks), the fissioning fuel rods could become so hot that they will melt.
The heat produced in the fuel rods is more than enough to raise the temperature of cooling water to its boiling point. All of the nuclear accidents that have occurred in the world have been at least partially caused by loss of coolant.
Some examples are:
- The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture initiated by a large sunami foloowing the Tohoku earthquake. Cooling water stopped flowing to the reactor core after flooding disabled the emergency generators. For more info on this disaster click here.
- The 1986 Chernobyl Nuclear accident near Pripyat, USSR. This was an operator error during a disaster planning exercise, but coolant was lost to the reactor core resulting in a core melt-down. For more information click here.
Processing Plants, Refineries and Gas Plants:
All processing plants have fire suppression piping systems, as do large campuses, high-rise buildings, airports, military bases etc. All require fire-water pipeline systems.
Many of these systems are aging and are improperly maintained. Lake and river water often sits dormant and stagnating in the pipes causing under-scale corrosion and MIC (Micro-biologically Influenced Corrosion). This can lead to leaks and cracks in the pipes and loss of pressure at the very time that the system is needed to fight a fire.
Don't let this happen to you!
PICA can help identify the condition of your cooling water and fire-water pipelines using it's patented, state of the art Remote Field Technology (RFT) See Snake Tools. Join the growing list of pipeline owners around the world who have used our service. To date PICA has inspected over 660,000' (200 kms) of water mains using the RFT technique.
Use of RFT to evaluate fire suppression piping
The See Snake Tool solution.
There is a demand in the market for improved probability of detection (P.O.D.) and exceptional accuracy for sizing of corrosion pits. Competing tools that use Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) require intimate contact with the pipe wall in order to achieve acceptable flaw sizing. Unfortunately many pipelines have internal deposits and others are lined with cement mortar, epoxy or polyethylene, preventing the effective use of MFL tools. See Snake technology, on the other hand, requires no contact with the pipe wall, and can measure through scale, wax, sand, tubercles and non-magnetic liners. In fact, See Snake tools have a clearance of up to 2" (50mm) to allow passage of the tool past internal liners and deposits.
The See Snake Tool advantage.
- Non-contact NDT method.
- Equally sensitive to internal and external flaws.
- Complete coverage at fast inspection speeds.
- Accurate results that identify both the severity and location of areas of wall thinning.
- Novel mechanical design can accommodate ID variations as well as traverse sharp bends.
- Tethered or Free-Swimming, the Tools are pressure-proof and completely autonomous robots.
Semi-Automatic Analysis Software
See Snake data analysis is semi-automatic and a report is created as the analysis is being performed. Depending on the line condition, analysis and reporting can be done in the field, but is usually done the next day, off-site, to reduce labour costs.
The multi-channel See Snake Tools inspects 360° of the pipe. The data is displayed as color maps, strip-chart logs and voltage planes. Reports contain details of every wall-loss defect in the length inspected, including its clock location on the pipe and its axial location referenced to the nearest bell and spigot joint or weld. Materials that can be inspected with this technology include cast-iron, ductile-iron and steel.
Internal nodules and debris can be up to 1" (25.4mm) thick without impeding the Tool's progress through the pipe
Internal liners of cement mortar, bitumen, HDPE or FRP are no problem for the See Snake...it can "see" through liners up to 1" (25.4mm) thick.
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