First-of-a-
Kind IVVI
Robot
By Jerry Dolan, GE Hitachi Nuclear
Energy.
Jerry Dolan
Jerry Dolan is a Senior Tooling
Manager for GE Hitachi Nuclear
Energy (GEH) responsible for Stinger
development and delivery working for
GEH in its In Vessel
Visual Inspections
(IVVI) Group. A
veteran of nearly 28
years of technical
design, installation
and maintenance
of industrial
automation and
instrumentation
and control
systems, he was the
customer interface
for a variety
of commercial and industrial
instrumentation systems. As a manager
for a major industrial automation and
controls systems company, he managed
groups of engineers and technicians
who satisfactorily delivered projects
for his customers on time and under
budget. This combination of hands-on
experience and knowledgeable business
savvy makes him the ideal Project
Manager for Stinger.
Jerry Dolan graduated from the
University of Cincinnati with degrees
in Electrical Engineering and Business
Management.
Reducing Dose and
Adding Flexibility
During the 2013 Spring Outage
season, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy
(GEH) and its BWR experts teamed with
Southern Nuclear Operating Company
(SNC) for the first deployment of
GEH’s new Stinger™ In-Vessel Visual
Inspection (IVVI) tool at the Hatch
Nuclear Plant. The Stinger tool provides
BWR plants the ability to remotely
conduct in-vessel visual inspections and
to perform cleaning tasks during critical
path activities, which directly reduces
dose and the time needed to conduct
visual inspections.
Legacy BWR inspection technology
consisted of hand-held, pole-mounted
cameras operated by
personnel positioned
over the refueling
cavity. These per-
sonnel, in turn, were
close to radioactive
sources and were
impacted by various
other
maintenance
activities that were
required to be per-
formed in the reactor
vessel throughout the
outage. By compari-
son, Stinger allows
personnel to remotely perform IVVI
inspections, away from other critical
outage activities while at the same time
providing higher quality examinations
through the use of high resolution video.
Through advanced camera and
remote positioning technology developed
by GEH with input from our customers,
Stinger allows outage personnel to clean
and examine IVVI components from
the annulus floor to the RPV flange
without tool removal or reconfiguration.
Remote operation of Stinger allows for
uninterrupted fuel movement. Inspections
may be performed in parallel with
fuel movement and other critical path
activities. Stinger can also inspect the
open slot area below the steam dam when
a 360 degree platform is used. Allowing
workers to operate the Stinger remotely
ensures reduced radiation exposure, thus
helping plants meet their ALARA goals.
In June 2012, the Stinger tool’s
capabilities were demonstrated to several
utilities, including SNC, at GEH’s BWR
training facility in San Jose, CA. The
GEH BWR training facility is the testing
ground for new technologies used in
the field for operating nuclear power
plants around the world. It was the first
facility of its kind capable of full scale
simulation of nuclear plant refueling and
maintenance activities. Impressed with
the Stinger demonstration, SNC decided
to pilot the tool during the 2013 Spring
Outage (RFO22).
Stinger’s performance at the Hatch
site during RFO22 can be summed up
by one of SNC project managers, as
follows: “Overall, Stinger provided very
good service,” said Project Manager
Roger McDonald. “The new technology
allowed us to work in parallel with [the]
inspection process and maintain our
outage schedule.”
The tool’s remotely operated
technology, weld cleaning, image quality,
and radiation tolerance were all proven
during the Hatch outage. Equally as
impressive, 100 percent of Stinger’s
scope was delivered on time. Based
on the Hatch results, there seems to be
little doubt that, by using this new IVVI
technology, higher quality exams can
be achieved and safety can be increased
through dose reduction.
Contact: Jerry Dolan, GE Hitachi
Nuclear Energy, 3901 Castle Hayne
Rd, Wilmington, North Carolina 28401;
email:
.
Stinger docked in the Dryer
Separator Pool (DSP) at Southern
Nuclear Operating Company’s Hatch
Nuclear Plant .
30
NuclearPlantJournal.com Nuclear Plant Journal, September-October 2013
Note: IVVI is an intelligent vehicle
based on visual information.
