Affiliations 

  • 1 Malaysian Nuclear Agency
MyJurnal

Abstract

In industrial plants such as electricity generating, petroleum, chemical and petrochemical plants, pipelines are used extensively to transport liquid from one location to another. In radiation vulcanization of natural rubber latex (RVNRL) plants, pipelines are also used to transport latex to storage tank. During one of its maintenance activities, a pipeline intelligent gauge (PIG) that was used to monitor pipe integrity jammed inside the pipe causing interruption to its operation or loading activities. Sealed source technology was utilized to determine the location of jammed PIG in the pipeline. Fast neutrons from a 50 mCi Americium Beryllium (AmBe241), with energy range between 0.5 to11 MeV, were used for the study. Helium 3 (He3) detector was used to detect slow neutrons having a range of energy of 30 eV- 0.5 MeV. The investigation was carried out using neutron backscatter technique scanner. By adopting back-scattered technique, the location of jammed PIG in the pipeline has been successfully determined.