Excel Automatic Locking Scaffold. Deactivation and Decommissioning Focus Area. OST Reference #2320

Technical Report · Wed Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 1999

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1248370· OSTI ID:1248370

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) continually seeks safer and more cost-effective technologies for decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) of nuclear facilities. To this end, the Deactivation and Decommissioning Focus Area (DDFA) of the DOE’s Office of Science and Technology sponsors large-scale demonstration and deployment projects (LSDDPs). At these LSDDPs, developers and vendors of improved or innovative technologies showcase products that are potentially beneficial to the DOE’s projects and to others in the D&D community. Benefits sought include decreased health and safety risks to personnel and the environment, increased productivity, and decreased cost of operation. The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) LSDDP generated a list of need statements defining specific needs or problems where improved technologies could be incorporated into ongoing D&D tasks. Although not addressed explicitly, the use of scaffolds is needed in several of the listed needs, including characterization, demolition, and asbestos abatement. In these areas, scaffold towers are used to access areas that are not accessible using mechanical methods such as manlifts or mechanical platforms. In addition, the work requires more mobility than what can be achieved using ladders. Because of the wide use of scaffold on D&D projects, a need exists for a safer to use, faster to set up, and overall cheaper scaffold system. This demonstration investigated the feasibility of using the Excel Automatic Locking Scaffold (innovative technology) to access areas where tube and clamp scaffold (baseline) is currently being used on D&D activities. Benefits expected from using the innovative technology include: Decreased exposure to radiation, chemical, and/or physical hazards during scaffold erection and dismantlement; Increased safety; Easier use; Shorten D&D Schedule; Reduced cost of operation; Excel Scaffold is compatible with tube and clamp scaffold. This report compares the cost and performance of the tube and clamp scaffold to the cost and performance of the Excel Automatic Locking Scaffold.

• Research Organization: USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM), Washington, DC (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM)
• OSTI ID: 1248370
• Report Number(s): DOE/EM-0482
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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