INSPECTORS ZOOM IN FOR A CLOSER LOOK

When Tim Trebilcock was asked in the summer of 2015 if it would be

possible to fly a drone into the vacuum building of the Darlington Nuclear

Generating Station, his reply was a quick, “Sure, no problem.”

The only issues were 1. There was no drone to fly and 2. This kind of

inspection had never been done before.

But Trebilcock, an associate engineer and technical officer with OPG’s

Inspection and Maintenance Services (IMS), knew it could be done.

Trebilcock, a drone hobbyist in his spare time, bought a DGI Phantom 3

quadcopter, affixed an extra GoPro camera on top of it, and used it to

examine Darlington’s vacuum building, a structure designed to prevent the

release of radioactive material in the event of a leak or nuclear accident.

Flying around in the building, the two cameras on the unmanned aerial

vehicle (UAV) proceeded to capture high-definition, 4K video of the sealed

chamber. The footage revealed no major concerns and the inspection was

deemed a success. It also marked the beginning of IMS’s growing UAV

inspection program.

“We demonstrated that this is a much safer approach to doing the

inspection work. We’ve also demonstrated we could save a lot of money

and do this right,” Trebilcock said, adding that using a drone to inspect the

vacuum building avoided the construction of a swing stage and scaffolding,

saving more than $250,000 in the process.

Since that pilot project, IMS’s fleet of UAVs has grown from one drone to

11; each one is capable of performing different tasks for different types of

inspections. Many of these UAVs are equipped with sensitive sensors and

cameras capable of very detailed zooming and creating high-resolution 3D

maps.

The drones have been used to inspect OPG’s nuclear sites and

hydroelectric stations, taking up-close and detailed video of buildings,

dams, ice booms and more.

“We’re looking at different applications at the hydro stations, inspecting

things like switchyards and dam faces,” said Colin Thomson, IMS’s

Manager of Business Development and Risk Management. “We’ve

collaborated on security as well, inspecting the fence lines around dams

and monitoring construction sites.”

The drones are particularly useful because they can quickly and easily

observe hard-to-reach places while reducing risk to employees. IMS is

now in the process of providing the UAV inspection service to customers

outside the company through OPG’s subsidiary, Canadian Nuclear

Partners.

“It’s taken a while to understand the regulatory framework,” Trebilcock

said, explaining the challenge of complying with Transport Canada’s

Aeronautics Act, which regulates aviation security. "But we're very close

to the changing regulations and we check weekly with Transport Canada

to ensure compliance."

IMS already has several Special Flight Operations Certificates that allow

its seven trained pilots to fly the drones in certain airspaces. This year,

the program is aiming to be fully compliant in order to operate the UAVs

anywhere in Canada.

@opg @opgpics

An unmanned aerial vehicle inspects ice booms on the St. Lawrence River.