Phoenix Inspection Systems has been commissioned by British Energy to design and build a new scanner for Sizewell B, its pressurised water reactor (PWR) nuclear power station.
The device will be used to test the circumferential seam weld on the power station’s Pressuriser when Sizewell is shut down during its 10-year outage in 2005. An existing scanner is not able to cover all of the weld since access is blocked in parts by four sets of support lugs and steelwork.
The new scanner will enable these areas which are presently inaccessible to be scanned. Bryan Forth, project engineer with Phoenix, said: “The challenge was to design a scanner that could reach into areas that were difficult to access and could also operate within a restricted ‘envelope’. Our design overcomes these problems and will allow future inspections to achieve the required coverage.”
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