GLOBAL NUCLEAR |
Below: A laser cutting demonstration using inflatables to prevent steelwork from falling to the ground
Bottom: Greg Willetts, Jacobs Vice President for Technology and Consultancy
problem. This enables waste and contaminants to be characterized in-situ and save the time and cost of laboratory testing – effectively bringing the lab to the worksite. The integration of robotics, tooling and data
management systems is based on a modular toolkit approach, using lightweight, highly adaptable equipment for remote dismantling of plant and innovative waste handling. For example, a novel system was developed to cut down contaminated vessels and lower them to the ground without the need for heavy lifting equipment or working at height. To create a modular support structure, the cell was filled with plastic inflatables which were gradually deflated after the vessels were cut free using lightweight robotic laser cutting equipment. The systems were successfully demonstrated to a team of independent assessors, using a full-scale mock-up of a reprocessing cell at Jacobs’ laboratories at Warrington in the U.K. The assessors agreed that the new methodology could achieve a cost saving of at least 20% over conventional techniques. Greg Willetts, Jacobs Vice President for Technology and
Consultancy, said: “Innovation is of most value when it is considered in the context of the whole process. New technologies make it possible to replace a complex solution with a simpler solution that would previously have been dismissed. “The outcomes reached beyond the technology story
in all the organizations involved, changing organizational behaviors in areas such as supply chains and innovation, identifying process changes and bottlenecks, and creating opportunities for growing businesses within the nuclear sector. All project partners learned from each other and grew in capability and confidence as a direct result of their involvement. The project achieved significant engagement between these organizations, with more than 70 individuals contributing to the success and learning from the experience.” The next stage for Jacobs and its partners - Pixelmill,
Damavan Imaging, Digital Concepts Engineering, IS- Instruments, I3D Robotics, The University of Salford and TWI – is to carry out trials of the system in an active environment inside one of the legacy nuclear reprocessing facilities at Sellafield. If the trials are successful, they will highlight how these new approaches can be applied in decommissioning legacy nuclear facilities across the world. ■
To learn more:
john.brotherhood@
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