Innovative Solution for Buried Piping Recovery
Framatome company was recently awarded a contract to perform first large recovery of buried condenser feed pipes using an innovative spray-in-place structural pipe liner solution.
Ageing and degradation of buried piping and underground components is a problem to nuclear power plant operation, since the challenging location of these components ranging from just a few centimeters to three meters in diameter makes maintenance and inspections costly.
The technology is implemented by remote control: in-pipe robotic crawlers, the fast-curing liner is sprayed evenly onto the inside of the pipe, fully recovering the pipe, at the same time the quick-installing system does not require excavation and direct access to pipes.
Framatome assures that they developed a technology to reduce loads of more than one and a half kilometers of large-diameter piping going underground to the installed condenser boxes. The design will be implemented in nine outages over eight years and the first application is scheduled in 2025.
The engineering system of structural spraying can recover piping important to safety after expiration of initial 50 years of design life and till the end of NPP service life, and quick-installing technology does not require excavation, minimizes safety risks and reduces period of outage and expenses.
In future, the experience of using such a technology can be applied to piping and valves of Ukrainian NPPs. Metal ageing and very wide variability of pipe diameter cause very high price for maintenance or replacement, while mentioned technologies can significantly reduce the costs for recovery.