Today, many nuclear power plants are realizing that they can save money and streamline operations by replacing larger, and more expensive, diaphragm pumps with smaller rotary gear pumps for the following reasons: Performance - Gear pumps are specifically designed to address high flow rates and deliver uniform, pulse-free dosing. Reliability – Chemicals such as sodium hypochlorite tend to off-gas when they come in contact with metal surfaces. However, non-metallic gear pumps feature a simple design that helps prevent off-gasing, which minimizes disruptions and helps to maximize uptime for water treatment operations. Safety - Because exposure to chemicals such as chlorine gas can cause respiratory issues for employees, great care should be taken to ensure that leaks do not occur when dosing hazardous chemicals. Sealless gear pumps offer fewer points of failure because there are no leak points for harsh chemicals to damage the pump or the surrounding equipment. Streamlined Maintenance – Easy access to the inner workings of a gear pump enables it to be maintained in place, which minimizes downtime by eliminating the need to lock out/tag out the pump and move it to the repair shop. The simpler the design is, the easier the pump is to maintain. This gives plant operators greater flexibility to schedule maintenance between shifts, or whenever it is least disruptive to do so. Smaller Footprint – Rotary gear pumps are compact in nature and they don’t require as many ancillary items as diaphragm pumps do (such as pulsation dampeners), so the overall size of the equipment package can be reduced.

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