Determination of leakages in blast furnace cooling plates

A system has been designed and installed in order to confirm the eventual occurrence of leakages in the cooling plates of a blast furnace refractory lining. The system injects a solution of T into the feeding pipeline and determines, by means of liquid scintillation (LS) counting, the concentration of T in the exhausting gases at the top of the blast furnace. The system was tested under different blast furnace operating conditions, and allowed the detection and determination of leakages greater than 0.5 L/min. Following necessary maintenance, the system also confirmed the satisfactory results of the corrective actions.