Water Valve Leak Mitigation

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Scope: When performing maintenance on a pure water fluid system, valves are commonly used for work area isolation. Valves that have been in-service can leak past their seats. In this case, the worker may still be protected from hazardous energy on the other side of the valve but work such as welding might not be possible if water is being continually introduced to the work area. In this case, more valves can be used if available in the system design, but if not, freeze seals are commonly used to eliminate leakage.

Freeze seals can consume significant work and resources to set, so alternate means to mitigate water leakage past valves is desired. A method to mitigate valve leak-by for the hours or days a system is open for maintenance or the time to perform a weld is desired which will not affect pure water chemistry or stainless-steel corrosion or cracking performance. The method must not introduce devices or materials that require removal from the system after repair is completed. Solutions must either be external to the system, completely dissolve into known and consistent constituents at room temperature, or otherwise non-intrusive.