Nuclear Future Volume 9 issue 1 PROMOTIONAL FEATURE
Importance of trialing in support of hot cell equipment development
N
uvia has long experience with the development of plant, equipment and techniques for operations in hot cells used for undertaking both research and development studies and
the decommissioning of nuclear plants and facilities. Lessons learned over the last 10-15 years have been fed into
subsequent operations, supported by expert knowledge, design, precision engineering and a growing ability to undertake larger and more challenging tasks. This feature sets out some of the more recent challenges undertaken for a range of clients, both in the UK and abroad, and demonstrates the capabilities and operational experience which is available for deployment for other clients; most importantly the experience demonstrates the benefit that can be gained from undertaking development trials Over recent years Nuvia has been involved in a number of
projects which have benefited from the development of trials rigs to enable upfront trialing of equipment in advance of active operations. Discussed below are three projects which have benefited from this approach. At Ignalina Nuclear Power Station in Lithuania, Nuvia has
been working as part of an international project which included collaboration in areas of technical expertise to derive the best solutions to deal with Spent Fuel. The scope of the work undertaken by Nuvia concerned the design,
manufacture and testing of the Fuel Bundle Handling Equipment (FBHE) and production of the associated safety assessments and documentation for operation of these items and the new Fuel Inspection Hot Cell (FIHC). The FIHC facility was designed to enable spent fuel bundles to be withdrawn underwater in a pond from storage casks, inspected and, if required, repackaged where damage was detected. Nuvia safety consultants undertook the hazard assessments and
fault studies for each package of work and provided input and advice to the Lithuanian Energy Institute who were responsible for all safety documentation. These findings were fed back into the design process to ensure that the subsequent constructions could proceed with confidence. The main supply side of the contract involved the design, construction and testing of the two FBHE units together with several simulated non-active fuel bundles to replicate the properties of the existing damaged bundles stored in the Ignalina Station pond. Once manufactured, commissioning tests were carried out on the two FBHE units using a dummy pond in the T3 Facility in Caithness Scotland to ensure that the items operated with the dummy fuel bundles as required (see Figure 1). The rigs which have been developed have also
28 Nuvia Figure 1: Testing of the Ignalina equipment, Caithness
enabled the customer to train the Lithuanian personnel who will be responsible for operating the plant. The value of having such capabilities cannot be over-
emphasised. This has allowed the items to be shipped to the Ignalina site where construction of the FIHC facilities is well underway. It also demonstrates Nuvia’s ability to provide high levels of expertise and experience to work successfully with both UK and overseas based utilities. In the UK current practice for dealing with mobile radioactive inventories is to immobilise these materials through encapsulation. Significant experience has been developed in the UK for processing intermediate level wastes (ILW) in this way. However, nowhere is the challenge more significant than at Sellafield where bulk quantities of radioactive sludges and mixed beta-gamma waste (MBGW) require processing. The work being undertaken at the site includes the design and build of the Silos Direct Encapsulation plant (SDP) which will
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