MTA-MA-017

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Administrative Items
Date	12/15/2020
Functional Area Where Benefits Will Be Realized	Maintenance Quality Control
Reference Implementation Guidance	2018 TIP Award - Submittal 14 (ID: 11240582) EPRI Nondestructive Evaluation: Buried Pipe NDE Reference Guide, R3 (EPRI 3002004395) EPRI Nondestructive Evaluation: Assessment and Development of Buried Pipe NDE Technology, R1 (EPRI 3002010027)
Industry SME	EPRI – PRR, NDE Contact: NuclearPlantMod@epri.com
Previous Implementation	Please contact EPRI for implementation examples and contacts.
Implementation Enablers	N/A
Applicability	All reactor types All geographic regions
Keywords	Robotic Examination; Buried Piping Systems; Piping Nondestructive Examination
Business Case Analysis Cross-Reference	N/A

Description

Robotic crawlers can be used to perform internal inspections of buried or other difficult to access piping systems. Crawlers can support visual inspections with a camera and/or volumetric examinations with non‑destructive examination (NDE) equipment. These inspections require only a single access point to the pipe and can be performed on a range of piping sizes. Performing in‑line inspections eliminates the need for excavation to access the pipe. The crawler can use the various NDE techniques, including Electro Magnetic Acoustic Transducer (EMAT) ultrasonic testing (UT) technology. Utilizing EMAT allows for 100 % volumetric inspection of protected and/or sleeved ferromagnetic piping segments without removing protective coatings. Selection guidance of the appropriate NDE is provided in EPRI’s buried pipe reference guide.

Benefits

Benefits Estimate

Level 2 – Savings are greater than $1 million per utilization but less than $5 million.

Benefits Description

• Reduction of cost to inspect piping systems that are difficult to access, particularly buried piping where excavation is required.
• For some NDE techniques, reduction of cost by eliminating the need to remove and reapply protective coatings to perform inspections.
• Reduction of risk of damaging buried infrastructure and impact to station equipment.
• Increased resolution of inspection through 100 % volumetric examination, reducing risk of missing localized degradation or other anomalies.
• Increased schedule flexibility due to short inspection times in comparison to fully excavated and prepped piping system.
• Increased safety because maintenance personnel are not required to enter confined spaces and eliminating inherent risks of creating pipe entry points (e.g., cutting pipe).

Costs and Schedule

Cost

Level 3 – Implementation cost is less than $1 million.

Schedule

Between six months and a year to develop technical justification to use crawler in lieu of manual inspection. Approximately one day inspection per line.

Scope Context

Per Piping System. Costs and Benefits will vary based on size and scope of piping system to be inspected.

Risks

Schedule risk associated with first use of an in‑situ NDE technique at a specific site. Performing a technical justification prior to committing to a new NDE technique will mitigate this risk.

SWEEP Score

Category	Level	Description
Cost	3	Utilizing the services of a contractor to robotically inspect piping, with the vendor working with the plant’s outage schedule, should be limited to $1 million or less.
Savings	2	Savings are achieved through the reduction of inspection costs (e.g., avoiding excavation) and are generally expected to be greater than $1 million per utilization but less than $5 million.
Payback	3	Based upon estimated cost and savings information, the payback period would be within one year or immediate on execution.
Technical Readiness	3	The technology is commercially available and has already been used at commercial nuclear sites.
Licensing Readiness	3	This technology has already been implemented at nuclear power plants.
Implementation Proficiency	3	The implementation of robotic buried pipe inspection has been performed by vendors in the past and does not require the utility to have robotics knowledge.