Framatome Technologies’ URSULA robot has significantly reduced the time required to perform a 10-year reactor vessel in-service inspection. The inspection, undertaken at Commonwealth Edison’s Byron unit 2, was completed in 3.9 days, beating URSULA’s previous best of 4.9 days, for a PWR vessel.
The ultrasonic vessel ISI, scheduled to be completed in 4.5 days, was the fourth undertaken for ComEd. It covered the entire vessel, including outlet nozzles.
Framatome claims that URSULA’s design, which allows two manipulators to work at once, can cut inspection times by as much as 40%.
The robot is only 6 feet tall, weighs less than 800 pounds, deploys fully assembled through the personnel hatch at many plants and can be installed with minimal polar crane support.
