Entergy’s River Bend site contracted BHI to inspect and clean all floor drains in the Radwaste and Turbine buildings. The project involved small bore pipe ranging from 4″ to 8″, significantly blocked with corrosion scale and debris. Customer concern was on ensuring that the cleaning system would not damage the pipes. BHI found that due to the location and size of the pipes, hands-on visual inspection and cleaning was not possible throughout the system. Working under these requirements, BHI designed a hydrolase system to high pressure flush and remove corrosion scale wall build-up and debris from the small diameter pipe. BHI equipped the designed hydrolaser pump system with a video feed through a push camera system, which allowed video inspection while hydrolasing. Through combined technology BHI was able to carefully and precisely target areas of concern utilizing pressures ranging from 1000 psi to 5000 psi. Alternatively, when blockages were unable to be removed with a high pressure of 5000 psi, mechanical tooling was utilized.
