The inspection of confined spaces is a typical issue within the nuclear energy sector. This type of inspection can be dangerous for operators who carry it out and can also demand a period of downtime, therefore increasing costs. Inspections need to be safe, especially when it comes to complex structure with limited access.

Take for instance reactor pressure vessels (RPV), these structures are welded with heavy-duty metal to contain nuclear reactor coolant and a reactor core under high pressures. Inspecting the upper and bottom cover of these RPVs can have serious limitations.

The difficulty of access and other problems resulting from environment, design and operating characteristics can make periodic inspection of reactor vessels, using methods available and generally used for non-nuclear vessels, a difficult, only partially effective, operation.

Part of the critical path of the power plant’s outage, these types of inspections are essential to reveal potential problems before they develop further. Whereas it is to spot design deficiencies, fabrication flaws or deterioration of materials (crack, corrosion, erosion…), a number of tools have been developed to facilitate inspection in constrained area.

Often, small is beautiful and the robotic platform we are here putting forward is indeed small, multipurpose and ticks a lot of boxes to perform visual inspections in confined spaces and hazardous environments.