The TRIGA facility at the Atominstitut Wien (in Vienna, Austria) was requested to provide equipment for detailed inspection of core internals and remote cleaning of the pools of several research reactor facilities. The following equipment was provided:

• an underwater endoscope with 6.5 m length and three viewing angles (0°, 45° forward, 90°)

• a high pressure water jet to stir up debris from tank internals

• a circulation pump with coarse and fine filters

• a pick-up tool for small pieces

• photo and video equipment

4.2. Typical Inspection Program at Small Reactor Facility

After setting up all equipment, the tank inspection usually starts in one sector of the tank and continues clockwise through the other sectors. The tank bottom, the reflector, the respective beam tubes and their connection to the tank are optically inspected by the endoscope in each sector. Usually, many particles of different sizes are found with the larger particles or objects (e.g. bolts and screws) are removed with the pick-up tool developed at the Atominstitut. The optical inspection usually lasts for two days followed by cleaning of the tank bottom with the circulation pump. After another visual check, the high pressure water jet is used to stir up all deposits and flush the tank surfaces. This task takes about half a day and this causes the tank water to become very cloudy and semi-transparent due to suspended particles. At the same time, the circulation pump filters out these particles. The primary and purification loop are kept operating overnight to filter the water and to remove the suspended particles. Normally, by the following day, all tank surfaces and the tank water are clean and no deposits are found at the tank bottom.