Underwater Search Equipment

Statiol recently expanded their operations by purchasing the South Riding Point Storage and Transhipment Terminal on Grand Bahama Island. The company plans to invest 200 million, half of which will be spent on upgrades at the facility. A significant portion of that money is being used to hire contractors to perform the work, amongst them the Jan de Nul Group, Belgium. The EPC project (engineering, procurement, & construction) includes removal of an existing pipeline, and the fabrication and installation of a new 42 inch line which will be connected by a spool and riser to an offshore loading platform.

 

One of the tools Jan de Nul is employing is JW Fishers SeaOtter-2 ROV to monitor and inspect the removal of the old line and installation of the new one. The SeaOtter, a highly maneuverable underwater vehicle equipped with two high-resolution cameras, allows engineers to watch the construction work from a topside support vessel, and to view it from any angle.

 

A nuclear facility using underwater search equipment is the Nine Mile Point Nuclear Power Station in New York. One of units there had been taken offline to upgrade and replace motors, valves, and seals. Before returning it to service, a FME (foreign materials exclusion) procedure was implemented to minimise the possibility of any foreign material entering the facility. Divers using JW Fishers Pulse 8X underwater metal detector searched the area around the intake pipes that bring in cooling water. Scouring the site with this powerful, commercial grade detector allowed divers to locate every piece of metal in the area, ensuring no metallic debris will be sucked into the plant.

 

A hydroelectric company using underwater search equipment is BC Hydro in British Columbia, Canada. BC Hydro operates 30 hydroelectric facilities and 3 natural gas-fueled thermal power plants. Recently the company acquired one of Fishers CT-1 cable tracking systems. The cable tracker has the capability of finding and following both live and de-energised power cables, on land and under water. It can also locate faults and breaks in cables. According to a company spokesman, the CT-1 was supplied to one of the BC Hydro's contractors, commercial diving company CANPAC, who used the CT-1 to locate and track a transmission cable from the point of entry into a lake, across the lake, and out the other side.