NEWS FROM AILU
Laser applications in nuclear
By Dave MacLellan, AILU executive director
of Cumbria on 6 June 2019. The workshop will be held at Energus, a local venue close to the National College for Nuclear (NCfN), which has a new site near Workington, Cumbria and is sponsored by the university – allowing local companies to attend for a sponsored rate. At the end of the one-day workshop, there is an opportunity to visit the NCfN to view its Virtual Reality Suite.
The nuclear sector has a history of using laser material processing for more than four decades. Initially, the capability of laser welding to be delivered remotely was a bonus for areas where a high integrity weld was required in a hot zone, or when working on materials that were already radioactive. Welding of control rods, fuel rods, support grids and other safety-critical components used in the nuclear sector required the consistency and quality assurance that lasers were able to offer. The introduction of pulsed Nd:YAG lasers with fibre optic beam delivery of more than 50m – and the ability to do fibre-to- fibre coupling – enabled remote operation previously limited by the physical distance of optics, mirrors and flight tubes. With the additional introduction of beams of rapidly increasing power and brightness from more efficient fibre and disk lasers, the possibility to cut thicker materials at the end of these long fibres became real. Further benefits in improved laser wall-plug efficiency led to more flexible systems, with lasers being brought to site in a portable trailer for repair or on-site decommissioning.
The LaserSnake: A snake arm robotic cutting head is able to be steered into difficult-to-access areas
“AILU will run a ‘Laser Applications in the Nuclear Industry Workshop’ in partnership with the University of Cumbria on 6 June 2019”
Location: Cumbria Nuclear power generation started in the UK at Calder Hall in Cumbria in 1956 – on the Sellafield site, which then developed into a commercial nuclear power centre. Several different phases of technology were then brought into service over the following decades. Now the industry employs more than 63,000 people in the UK and there are more than 50 nuclear reactors under construction around the world, in spite of the changing political implications following the Fukushima disaster of 2011. Although around 16 different locations have been commercialised in the UK, Cumbria remains significant in the country, with a local supply chain including a number of local engineering companies addressing the needs of the Sellafield site. For this reason, AILU is pleased to run a
A laser head for scabbling (ablating the surface of) concrete, used in decommissioning
38 LASER SYSTEMS EUROPE SUMMER 2019
‘Laser Applications in the Nuclear Industry Workshop’ in partnership with the University
Applications for lasers in nuclear Professors Andy Gale, of the University of Cumbria, and Lin Li from Manchester University (and past President of AILU) will outline how nuclear engineering fits into the UK Government Industrial Strategy, and what opportunities exist for the application of lasers in the nuclear industry. Chris Hope, from Sellafield, will highlight the needs of the nuclear site that the laser industry should address, while Oliver Meier, from Laser on Demand, will give a perspective from Germany. A range of presenters from industry and
academia will highlight the capabilities of laser welding – for example greater than 100mm penetration – and laser cutting using robotics and custom beam delivery to access areas previously out of reach for laser processing. Such capabilities were discussed by Dr Simon Kirk, of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, at AILU’s Industrial Laser Applications Symposium in Crewe, UK, in March, which Matthew Dale has covered in his report of the event on page 8. The requirements of nuclear
decommissioning and building reactors will be discussed, and case studies of successful remote laser welding, cutting, and scabbling of concrete – a process by which a few millimetres of contaminated surface concrete is removed – will be presented. l
Laser Applications in the Nuclear Industry Workshop
6 June 2019 Energus, Cumbria, CA14 4JW
www.ailu.org.uk/events info@ailu.org.uk +44 1235 539595
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