Mobile Robotic Systems for Fragmentation of Nuclear Equipment

Abstract

For liquidation of the heavy water evaporator has been applied a mobile robotic system MT 80, which had been developed, designed and constructed as a general-purpose decommissioning equipment. The heavy water evaporator as a part of the NPP heavy water system is located inside the main production unit building in Room No. 220 where the inner surface contamination is from 101 Bq/cm2 to the level of 103 Bq/cm2, dose rate up to 1.5 mGy/h and the feeding pipeline contained LRAW with high tritium content. The first step was the development of a work procedure with special focus on the elimination of activity and aerosols leaking into the environment. Special tooling was developed for application with the robot, such as hydraulic shears, circular saw, reciprocating saw, circular pipe cutter and a system for quick tool-change without direct intervention of the operators. All operations are remotely controlled on basis of visual information from four cameras, with consistent radiation protection of the operators.