PARTICULARITIES REGARDING THE OPERATING PROCESS OF THE CUTTING AND EXTRACTION DEVICE IN THE CANDU HORIZONTAL FUEL CHANNELS PRESSURE TUBE DECOMMISSIONING PART I: MOVEMENT AND FIXING DEVICE INSIDE THE PRESSURE TUBE

Abstract

This paper presents some details of operation process for a Cutting and Extraction Device (CED) in order to achieve the decommissioning of the horizontal fuel channels pressure tube in the CANDU 6 nuclear reactor. The most important characteristic of the Cutting and Extraction Device (CED) is his capability of totally operator’s protection against the nuclear radiation during pressure tube decommissioning. The movement and fixing processes present few particularities due to special adopted technical solutions: train guiding-fixing modules equipped with elastic guiding rollers and fixing claws, traction modules with elastic rollers and variable pitch, also with propriety to adapt the system according to various dimensions of the tube. The Cutting and Extraction Device (CED) is a train of modules equipped with special systems to be fully automated, connected with a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) and controlled by an operator panel type Human Machine Interface (HMI). All processes are monitored by video cameras. In case of error, the process is automatically stopped, the operator receiving an error message and the last sequence could be reinitialized or aborted due to safety reasons

Keywords

• Candu reactor
• fuel channel
• decommissioning
• dismantling
• cutting
• extraction