Development of Automatic Inspection and Maintenance Technology for Steam Generator in Nuclear Power Plants

원자력 발전소 증기세관 자동검사 및 보수 기술개발

In this paper, we propose a new approach to the development of the automatic vision system to examine and repair the steam generator tubes at remote distance. In nuclear power plants, workers are reluctant of works in steam generator because of the high radiation environment and limited working space. It is strongly recommended that the examination and maintenance works be done by an automatic system for the protection of the operator from the radiation exposure. Digital signal processors are used in implementing real time recognition and examination of steam generator tubes in the proposed vision system. Performance of proposed digital vision system is illustrated by simulation and experiment for similar steam generator model.