When the secondary water is flowing in the recirculating steam generator (SG) carries along with it traces of significant corrosive products that might eat away the systems if not annually regulated. With time, the corroded residue is then deposited in form of sludge, as well as scale. Therefore it requires the removal regularly to avoid the blockage of the system preventing the operation of the nuclear firm. The accumulated sludge is dangerous for it triggers pitting, intergranular attacks, and corrosion cracking together with other forms of tubular degradation. The destruction may affect the integrity and the longevity of the tubes hence affecting the SG’s functionality. The sludge removal needs to be done regularly in a bid to maximize the efficiency and the overall operating standards (Şekercı́oǧlu, Rende, Gülsöz, & Meran, 2003). The sludge lancing is applied by the use of the large volume of water in the jets that are used to remove the sludge that may be found in the tube sheets. The nozzles spray water amidst the tubes where it flushes all the loosened sludge out of the SG annulus with the help of the CIS that collect and displays the real-time operation graphics to ensure close monitoring.
The flushing of the peripherals is combined with the suction that allows the removal of all the sludge together with the slurry that is in the cleaned SG. The slurry is mostly pumped into the filter station within the industry where the decantation is done to obtain the water that gets recycled back to the lancing system. This is sustainable for it plays a role in conserving the water that is known for conserving the environment globally. The Westinghouse sludge system is used due to its effectiveness in efficiently removing the accumulated sludge in all the tube sheets surface that is either circular or triangular in the SDGs.
The Westinghouse is designed and customized to be able to recognize the system’s configurations and all the cleaning requirements that are commanded. The hammerhead technology is utilized here, the scale blaster, and the mini-lance that can straighten the flow to meet the client’s needs and specifications. The benefits that come with this mode of cleansing are that the tubes are not compromised of their integrity. It also reduces the outages and lancing instances with contour programs. During the process, there is limited personnel exposure and it is approved to be reasonably achievable of all the goals through the remote operation. The lancing has very reduced time stays in the containment where the system is a tool-user. They're also water conservation through the filtration method, returning it to the customer, and general recycling for several processes. With time the Westinghouse is expected to grow more beneficial for it is embracing the rapidly growing technology.
The inspections are done remotely by the use of exclusive SWATS PT that is developed by Rolls-Royce which is a revolutionary kind of inspection of a technology that uses the magnetic delivering system. The wrapper annulus transport tilt can be able to perform almost 100 percent visual inspections that are done remotely. The inspection is done on the downcomer in the annulus region that is located on the steam generator's secondary side. The SWATS system can as well accommodate the inspection of the tube sheet, as well as the lower or upper wrapper supporting structures. This region is located in the downcomer side found in the horizontal and the vertical directions in the steam generators (Liu, Chien, & Wang, 2004).
The wrapper inspections are beneficial for they help in the reduction of the overall doses with the remote inspections. The remote activity allows for a 100 percent inspection of the said annulus region that can review all the six tubes that are in the in-bundle side, which portrays a high-quality image. Additionally, the tilt and pan give the camera a true and live coverage that is capable of giving very accurate and precise information of the trending system and boosts more and accurate maintenance procedures for planning. The annulus is also capable of managing the available images and data by the use of the Rolls-Royce with the exclusive CIS in access the global data access in all the password-protected wen servers (Şekercı́oǧlu, Rende, Gülsöz, & Meran, 2003).
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