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[-] rodbiren@midwest.social 80 points 4 days ago

A whole bunch of welds in nuclear reactors are visually inspected using cameras duct taped onto the end of incredibly long poles which also get duct taped together. This would be the inside of BWR plants near the fuel and jet pumps. There is also an "art" to moving the cameras and poles around to get the shots you need. And if you get stuck the talented people know how to get you unstuck. There are also cameras just duct taped to ropes that the camera handler "swims" to certain spots.

Don't get me wrong, we have cool ultrasonic inspecting robots as well, but I was absolutely blown away by what visual inspection looked like in practice.

PS: The high dose fields make the camera look like it is being blasted with colorful confetti because of the high energy particles bombarding the camera module.

[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 4 days ago

Every high-tech workplace tapes shit together sometimes, and has systems and practices that are just kind of "good enough".

[-] NerdsGonnaNerd@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 days ago

Truely facinating! :)

How do you get the stick or rope into the high dose areas? Or do you use the robots for that?

[-] rodbiren@midwest.social 4 points 4 days ago

It just sort of sinks down. You have two ways of manipulation, the cable the camera uses for power and data and the attached rope. Between those two you sort of puppeteer/swim it into place. It actually works out pretty good and some people are real pro at it.

[-] HaleHirsute@infosec.pub 2 points 4 days ago

Is it not an issue that duct tape can be pretty flammable?

[-] rodbiren@midwest.social 2 points 2 days ago

Reactor is full of water so it's not an issue

this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2024
427 points (98.0% liked)

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