Robotics Enable Corrosion Inspection Inside Nuclear Reactor

摘要

In the early morning hours of May 15, 2009, during a shutdown of the National Research Universal (NRU) (Chalk River, Ontario, Canada) nuclear reactor vessel at the Atomic Energy of Canada Limited's (AECL's) Chalk River Laboratories facility, a heavy water leak was detected within the NRU reactor facility. The leak was attributed to a small hole in the reactor vessel wall caused by corrosion. Ensuing high-resolution nondestructive examination (NDE) inspections found additional areas of corrosion around the base of the reactor vessel, which were identified as wall thinning and localized pitting corrosion.