Industries/Power Generation
Power Generation NDT InspectionPower plant piping, boilers, turbines and balance of plant — new construction and outage work.
Prime Inspections provides NDT services for power plant piping, boilers, turbines and balance of plant equipment — and for the fuel gas piping that feeds the plant, which is the same work our crews do on the pipeline outside the fence.
Power generation is one of the markets we serve at every stage: new construction, turnarounds and emergency call-outs. Outage windows are fixed and expensive, so the methods are chosen for how fast an accept-or-repair call can be made without giving up the record.
- Power piping
- Boilers
- Turbines
- Balance of plant
- Fuel gas piping
What we inspect
Inside the plant, and on the line that feeds it.
Power & process piping
RT, PAUT, TOFD and digital radiography on plant piping welds, with UT wall-thickness surveys on operating circuits — examined to ASME B31.1 where the scope is power piping, or ASME B31.3 for process piping.
Boilers & pressure equipment
Radiographic and ultrasonic inspection of boiler and pressure-equipment welds, vessel seams, nozzles and internals, documented against the governing construction code.
Turbines & balance of plant
NDT on balance-of-plant equipment and the piping, supports and connections around the turbine hall, including MT and PT on structural steel, pipe racks and supports subject to vibration and thermal cycling.
Fuel gas piping & tanks
Girth-weld and tie-in inspection on the fuel gas piping feeding the plant, plus floor and shell UT thickness surveys, MT and welded-seam inspection supporting storage tank inspection programs.
Why plants and EPCs choose Prime
Built for the outage window
Turnarounds and maintenance shutdowns are what we scale for: large crew mobilization, 24/7 coverage, and real-time reporting so repairs are identified while the crew is still at the joint.
No darkroom in the loop
Every conventional exposure adds roughly 45 minutes of film development before the image is usable. Digital radiography has no development step — about 10 minutes to a usable image on a representative 24-inch weld, against roughly 57 for film.
Less of the plant shut down
Lower source strength and smaller exclusion boundaries mean less radiation exposure for crews and the public. Where radiography would still clear too much area, encoded phased array and AUT image the weld volume instead.
Audit-ready documentation
Results interpreted and reported against the governing code in your project specification, in a format ready for the plant's inspection file.
Codes of record
Plant piping is normally examined to ASME B31.1 where the scope is power piping, or ASME B31.3 for process piping, with ASME B31.9 on building services piping and sprinkler systems installed to NFPA 13. Pressure vessels follow ASME Section VIII, in-service piping inspection follows API 570, aboveground storage tank programmes follow API 653, and structural welds follow AWS D1.1. Fuel gas piping tied into a transmission system is reported against API 1104 and ASME B31.8. Examination requirements come from ASME Section V; the acceptance criteria are whatever your project specification names.
Methods we run on this work
Frequently asked questions
What does Prime inspect at a power plant?
Power plant piping, boilers, turbines and balance of plant equipment, plus the fuel gas piping feeding the plant, storage tanks, pressure vessels and structural welds.
Which methods do you use?
RT, digital radiography (DR), computed radiography (CR) and real-time radiography (RTR), PAUT, AUT and TOFD, and the conventional methods — MT, PT, UT and VT — from the same crews on the same mobilization.
What code is plant piping inspected to?
ASME B31.1 where the scope is power piping, ASME B31.3 for process piping and ASME B31.9 for building services piping, with pressure vessels to ASME Section VIII, in-service piping to API 570 and structural welds to AWS D1.1 — as your project specification calls out.
Can you support a turnaround or a forced outage?
Yes. Turnarounds, maintenance shutdowns and emergency outages are core work: large crew mobilization, 24/7 coverage and real-time reporting, with 24/7 response from our offices in Katy and Lubbock, Texas plus field locations nationwide.
Why digital radiography in an outage?
Conventional film adds roughly 45 minutes of development to every exposure. Digital has no development step — about 10 minutes to a usable image on a representative 24-inch weld against roughly 57 for film — and it runs at lower source strength with smaller exclusion boundaries.
Do you inspect the fuel gas line into the plant?
Yes — girth welds and tie-ins on fuel gas piping, reported against API 1104 for construction and ASME B31.8 in service, by the same crews that inspect the transmission system.
Do you do nuclear work?
No. Our power generation work covers plant piping, boilers, turbines and balance of plant equipment on conventional generating facilities.
How do I get a quote?
Use our contact form or call (281) 944-3840 with the scope, the outage window and the governing code, and our team will follow up.
Outage on the schedule?
Tell us the scope, the window and the code — we will scale the crew to it.