Concept for dismantling the Hllw treatment facility on the Former Wak Reprocessing Site
- Wiederaufarbeitungsanlage Karlsruhe, Ruckbau- und Entsorgungs- GmbH, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen (Germany)
The German pilot reprocessing plant WAK was operated until 1990 and processed about 200 tons of nuclear fuels from test and power reactors. In late 1991, the Federal Republic of Germany, the State of Baden-Wuerttemberg, and the utilities decided to shut down the WAK and to dismantle it completely to the green field. In the years 2000/2001, remote-controlled dismantling of the process cells in the reprocessing building was completed. Part of the building has already been subjected to release measurement and released from the obligations under the German Atomic Energy Act. However, a major prerequisite for the complete dismantling of the WAK is the management of the 60 m{sup 3} high-level liquid waste (HLLW) with an activity of 8.0 E 17 Bq resulting from reprocessing. For this purpose, the Karlsruhe vitrification plant (VEK) was constructed and is now under commissioning /1/. Hot operation is foreseen for the years 2007/2008. Following vitrification operation, dismantling of the four HLLW tanks in the storage building will be a particularly challenging task in terms of radiology. The HLLW tanks are located in thick-walled concrete cells that require remote- controlled horizontal access. For this purpose, a new access building, the southern extension, was built. It serves to bring in and operate the remote handling tools and allows for the contamination-safe removal and measurement of the MAW drums. In contrast to the crane in the process building, the manipulator carrier system used here is an 8 Mg excavator. All tools, including the wall cutter, chisel, cutting disk, scissors, and the electric master-slave manipulator (EMSM), can be docked to this excavator. The VEK installations shall be dismantled parallel to the HLLW storage tanks. Due to the dose rates expected after operation, two dismantling areas have to be distinguished in the VEK: The core area with the HLLW transfer cell, melter cell, and exhaust gas cell requires remote dismantling. All remaining cells and rooms may presumably be dismantled manually. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- WM Symposia, 1628 E. Southern Avenue, Suite 9 - 332, Tempe, AZ 85282 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 21290812
- Report Number(s):
- INIS-US-09-WM-07203; TRN: US10V0137038223
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: WM'07: 2007 Waste Management Symposium - Global Accomplishments in Environmental and Radioactive Waste Management: Education and Opportunity for the Next Generation of Waste Management Professionals, Tucson, AZ (United States), 25 Feb - 1 Mar 2007; Other Information: Country of input: France; 1 ref
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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