DETAILS OF OPERATIONS PERFORMED BY THE REMOTE CONTROL ROBOT (CONCEPT) TO THE HORIZONTAL FUEL CHANNEL DURING DECOMMISSIONING PHASE OF NUCLEAR REACTOR CALANDRIA STRUCTURE. PART II: INSIDE OPERATIONS

Abstract

The authors contribution to this paper is to present a concept solution of a remote control robot (RCR) used for decommissioning of the horizontal fuel channels pressure tube in the CANDU nuclear reactor. In this paper the authors highlight few details of geometry, operations, constraints by kinematics and dynamics of the robot movement inside of the reactor fuel channel. Inside operations performed has as the main steps of dismantling process the followings: unblock and extract the channel closure plug (from End Fitting - EF), unblock and extract the channel shield plug (from Lattice Tube - LT), cut the ends of the pressure tube, extract the pressure tube and cut it in small parts, sorting and storage extracted items in the safe robot container. All steps are performed in automatic mode. The remote control robot (RCR) represents a safety system controlled by sensors and has the capability to analyze any error registered and decide next activities or abort the inside decommissioning procedure in case of any risk rise in order to ensure the environmental and workers protection.

Keywords

• Decommissioning
• CANDU reactor
• fuel channel
• radiation protection