Advanced dismantling techniques applied in an industrial project for the dismantling of highly activated equipment - 15446

Conference · Wed Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2015

OSTI ID:22824347

Michel-Noel, Maxime; Calixte, Olivier ^[1]; Moitrier, Cyril; Blanchard, Samuel; Bani, Julien; Girones, Philippe ^[2]; Bourdy, Renaud; Terry, Gilbert ^[3]

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1. ONET Technologies (France)
2. Commissariat a l'energie atomique et aux energies alternatives - CEA (France)
3. Cybernetix SA (France)

Commissioned in 1958 on the CEA nuclear site of Marcoule (France) and shut down in 1997, the former UP1 plant was dedicated to reprocess the spent fuel from G1, G2 and G3 GCR reactors. Since 1998, a wide program for cleaning-up and dismantling the plant has been developed in order to dismantle the process equipment, eliminate any radiological risk in all buildings concerned and remove all the resulting waste. Major technical challenges are related to the wide range of complex components and equipment in the facilities such as chemical dissolvers, extractor batteries, evaporators, tanks; and to a high risk of exposure, due to the presence of fission products. To address these challenges, CEA led R and D programs to develop advanced tools for complex dismantling projects: immersive virtual reality, laser cutting techniques, special remote-controlled arms combining dexterity and high resistance to irradiation The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of a practical implementation and to show first results of these advanced techniques on a real case: the dismantling of dissolver's equipment from the dissolution workshop of UP1 plant. ONET Technologies has been chosen by CEA to design, build and operate the overall dismantling and waste treatment system for this project. ONET Technologies designed two main subsystems to meet all the requirements for this project: first, the 'Remotely-Operated Handling and Cutting Unit' and second the 'Waste Extraction and Conditioning Unit' and the combining innovative technologies. During the design phase, the 'Immersive Virtual Reality' has been used to qualify the kinematics in the final environment and the preliminary dismantling scenario. Following a first R and D program of CEA regarding the laser cutting technique applied to nuclear decommissioning, ONET Technologies and CEA realized elementary inactive tests based on a 6 kW Nd-Yag laser source to qualify the cutting performance according to material and thickness. Main objective was to meet the safety criteria and to check the physical characteristics of waste resulting from the laser cutting operation. The Remotely-Operated Handling and Cutting Unit was equipped with a MAESTRO manipulator, resulting from ten years of research and development cooperation between CEA and Cybernetix. This manipulator, a 6 axis hydraulic manipulator-arm specifically designed to work in harsh environment, entered in its industrial phase. ONET Technologies was responsible for the overall system integration, confinement and performance. A comprehensive qualification program in real conditions has been driven during 2014. The dismantling scenario was tested with a mockup at a full scale of dissolver equipment and confirmed at this stage the expected level of performance and safety. (authors)

• Research Organization: WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 27646, 85285-7646 Tempe, AZ (United States)
• OSTI ID: 22824347
• Report Number(s): INIS-US--19-WM-15446
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
CEA MARCOULE
CLEANING
DECOMMISSIONING
DISSOLUTION
DISSOLVERS
EXTRACTION
FISSION PRODUCTS
FUEL REPROCESSING PLANTS
IRRADIATION
MANIPULATORS
NEODYMIUM LASERS
PERFORMANCE
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SAFETY
SHUTDOWN
SPENT FUELS
WASTE PROCESSING