Inspection of calandria front area of Wolsung NPP using technique of mapping thermal infrared image into CCD image

This paper describes the enhanced inspection performance of a thermal infrared camera for monitoring abnormal conditions of calandria reactor area of Wolsung nuclear power plant. Thermal infrared camera have poor image qualities compared to commercial CCD cameras, as in contrast, brightness, and resolution. To compensate the poor image quality problems associated with the thermal infrared camera, the technique of mapping thermal infrared image into real ccd image is proposed. The mobile robot KAEROT/m2, loaded with sensor head system at the mast, is entered to monitor leakage of heavy water and thermal abnormality of the calandria reactor area in overhaul period. The sensor head system is composed of thermal infrared camera and ccd camera in parallel. When thermal abnormality on observation points and areas of calandria reactor area is occurred, unusual hot image taken from thermal infrared camera is superimposed on real CCD image. In this inspection experiment, more accurate positions of thermal abnormalities on calandria reactor area can be estimated by using technique of mapping thermal infrared image into CCD image, which include characters arranged in MPOQ order.