A drone has been used to inspect two concrete containment domes at American Electric Power’s Cook nuclear plant in Michigan, USA.

Cyberhawk Innovations says is the first time a drone has been used to meet American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) standards according to the Section XI Code.

The inspection too one week, and involved capturing images of the complete dome surface to meet the ASME code standard. The results were digitized into a 3D point cloud, which will allow direct comparisons for future inspections.

“The drone inspection generated direct cost savings of over 300% for AEP as well as significant indirect cost savings through reduced site disruption,” Cyberhawk said.

Traditionally inspections would be carried out using a man basket with a 60m crane – time intensive and costly work.  

 “This was a challenging but very interesting project to be part of, and demonstrates how Cyberhawk continues to innovate, break barriers and challenge limitations,” said Chris Fleming, CEO at Cyberhawk.

“Once again, our pilots have shown an exceptional level of skill by successfully capturing the data required so our engineers could produce a detailed inspection report. For AEP, the final reports provided 100% visual coverage of the dome with exact sizing of defects and a 3D model of the structure. This was delivered using our cloud based visual asset management system, iHawk.”

Photo: Cyberhawk inspected two concrete PWR containment domes for American Electric Power at the Cook Nuclear Plant