Testing and Deployment of Remote Systems to Remove Highly Radioactive Soil at Hanford's 324 Building - 18043
- CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company, Richland, WA 99354 (United States)
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company (CHPRC) is in the process of procuring, testing and deploying remotely operated tools to safely remove highly contaminated soil from beneath the 324 Building on the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington State. The 324 Building operated for more than 40 years, completing a variety of high-dose engineering development and demonstration activities inside six hot cells that shielded the workers from the highly radioactive materials. Activities to decommission, decontaminate and demolish the facility began in 2008. In 2010, soil contamination was found in the soil under one of the hot cells, and building deactivation was paused to evaluate the soil contamination. Sampling efforts, using borehole technology, revealed significant under-building contamination with dose rates measuring has high as 130 Sv/hr (13,000 R/hr). The highly-contaminated soil has to be removed before traditional open air deactivation activities can continue. CHPRC completed proof of concept testing and built a full-scale test facility to demonstrate the effectiveness of three primary tools that will accomplish the floor and soil removal. The tools include a commercially available concrete saw, and a commercially available excavator arm that have been modified to operate remotely in the high-radiation environment within the hot-cell. In order to reduce the wear on the hot-cell overhead cranes, a remote operated rail and cart system has been designed to transport soil and debris out of the hot-cell to an airlock area where the waste will be separated, according to its level of radioactivity. A camera and light system has been designed to provide visual and audio coverage of the hot-cell area that will allow the operations to proceed from remote control stations. This paper will describe the primary remote operated equipment designed for the project and the challenges and processes for developing, testing and deploying the equipment necessary to excavate the soil from below the 324 Building. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 27646, 85285-7646 Tempe, AZ (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 22975268
- Report Number(s):
- INIS-US-20-WM-18043; TRN: US21V0082015310
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: WM2018: 44. Annual Waste Management Conference, Phoenix, AZ (United States), 18-22 Mar 2018; Other Information: Country of input: France; 5 refs.; Available online at: https://www.xcdsystem.com/wmsym/2018/index.html
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Remediation of 130 mSv/hr. Soil Contamination Under a Hot Cell - 17301
Remote Technology to Retrieve Waste Below the 324 Building at the Hanford Site - 19622
Related Subjects
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
BOREHOLES
CONCRETES
CONTRACTORS
CRANES
DEACTIVATION
DOSE RATES
EARTHMOVING EQUIPMENT
HOT CELLS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RADIOACTIVITY
REMEDIAL ACTION
REMOTE CONTROL
SAMPLING
SURFACE CONTAMINATION
TEST FACILITIES
WASHINGTON