The UP1 plant in Marcoule reprocessed nearly 20,000 tons of used natural uranium gas cooled reactor fuel coming from the first generation of civil nuclear reactors in France. During more than 40 years, the decladding operations produced thousands of tons of processed waste, mainly magnesium and graphite fragments. In the absence of a French repository for the graphite waste, the graphite sludge content of the storage pit had to be retrieved and transferred into a newer and safer pit. So, this project consists in the full retrieval and transfer of 15 m3 of water mixed with graphite dust located in the decladding facility, as well as the complete cleanup and decontamination of the pit. The equipment and process necessary for retrieval operations were designed, built and tested. The process is mainly based on the use of two pumps (one to capture and the other one to transfer the sludge) working one after the other and a robotic arm mounted on a telescopic mast. A dedicated process was also set up for the removal of the biggest fragments. In the pit, the sludge retrieval and transfer operations have been almost completed. Most of the non-pumpable graphite fragments has been removed and transferred to a new storage pit. As irradiant fragments have been discovered in the pit, specific studies are in progress in order to remove them to the laboratory for dissolution. This work is expected to 2014.

The US Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM) oversees one of the largest and most technically challenging cleanup programs in the world. The mission of DOE-EM is to complete the safe cleanup of the environmental legacy from five decades of nuclearweapons development and government-sponsored nuclear energy research. Since 1995, Florida International University’s Applied Research Center (FIU-ARC) has supported the DOE-EM mission and provided unique research capabilities to address some of these highly technical and difficult challenges. This partnership has allowed FIU-ARC to create a unique infrastructure that is critical for the training and mentoring of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) students and has exposed many STEM students to “hands-on” DOE-EM applied research, supervised by the scientists and engineers at ARC. As a result of this successful partnership between DOE and FIU, DOE requested FIU-ARC to create the DOE-FIU Science and Technology Workforce Development Initiative in 2007. This innovative program was established to create a “pipeline” of minority STEM students trained and mentored to enter DOE’s environmental cleanup workforce. The program was designed to help address DOE’s future workforce needs by partnering with academic, government and private companies (DOE contractors) to mentor future minority scientists and engineers in the research, development, and deployment of new technologies and processes addressing DOE’s environmental cleanup challenges. Since its inception in 2007, the program has trained and mentored 78 FIU STEM minority students. Although, the program has been in existence for only six years, a total of 75 internships have been conducted at DOE National Laboratories, DOE sites, DOE Headquarters and field offices, and DOE contractors. Over 100 DOE Fellows have participated in the Waste Management (WM) Symposia since 2008 with a total of 84 student posters and 7 oral presentations given at WM. The DOE Fellows participation at WM has resulted in three Best Student Poster Awards (WM09, WM10, and WM11) and one Best Professional Poster Award (WM09). DOE Fellows have also presented their research at ANS DD&R and ANS Robotics Topical meetings and this year two Fellows will present at the International Conference on Environmental Remediation and Radioactive Waste Management (ICEM13) in Brussels, Belgium. Moreover, several of our DOE Fellows have already obtained employment with DOE-EM, other federal agencies, DOE contractors, commercial nuclear power companies, and other STEM industry (GE, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Johnson & Johnson, Beckman-Coulter, and other top companies). This paper will discuss how DOE Fellows program is training and mentoring FIU STEM students in Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management technical challenges and research. This training and mentoring has resulted in the development of well-trained and polished young scientists and engineers that will become the future workforce in charge of carrying on DOE-EM’s environmental cleanup mission. The paper will showcase FIU’s DOE Fellows model and highlight some of the applied research the DOE Fellows have conducted at FIU’s Applied Research Center and across the DOE Complex by participating in summer internship assignments.

The paper deals with experience and techniques in the application of remotely controlled robotic devices for the dismantling of the A-1 NPP technological equipment during undergoing decommissioning process of the A-1 NPP, which is characterized by high level of radioactivity and contamination. For liquidation of the heavy water evaporator has been applied a mobile robotic system MT 80, which had been developed, designed and constructed as a general-purpose decommissioning equipment. The heavy water evaporator as a part of the NPP heavy water system is located inside the main production unit building in Room No. 220 where the inner surface contamination is from 10 1 Bq/cm 2 to the level of 10 3 Bq/cm 2 , dose rate up to 1.5 mGy/h and the feeding pipeline contained LRAW with high tritium content. The first step was the development of a work procedure with special focus on the elimination of activity and aerosols leaking into the environment. Special tooling was developed for application with the robot, such as hydraulic shears, circular saw, reciprocating saw, circular pipe cutter and a system for quick tool-change without direct intervention of the operators. Then, civil engineering modifications were made to the workplace and new technology was installed, including an efficient exhaust system. After draining-off the remains of LRAW and rinsing the pipeline, fragmentation of the pieces of equipment was started. The fragments are being deposited into drums which are transported in shielded containers to the decontamination facility, where their activity is reduced prior to their storage or further use. All operations are remotely controlled on basis of visual information from four cameras, with consistent radiation protection of the operators. This experience will be exploited in the continuation of work in Room No. 219, where the second identical heavy water evaporator is located. Nuclear Power Plant A-1 is situated in the locality of Jaslovske´ Bohunice. The A-1 NPP decommissioning has been organized according to distinctively licensed phases, which allows collecting input data for next stage during the running decommissioning stage. Since 2009 the Stage II of the A-1 NPP decommissioning has been in process.

Research being undertaken at the University of Leeds, as part of the DIAMOND university consortium, is exploring the effectiveness of various ultrasonic technologies as in situ probes to characterize and monitor nuclear waste slurries, such as the ‘Legacy’ Magnesium hydroxide sludges found in Sellafield, U.K. Through use of a commercial Acoustic Backscatter Sensor (ABS) with 1–5 MHz transducers, various properties of free-settling oxide simulant sludges were determined. Work was focused upon characterizing essentially ‘static’ sludges (to give prospective use as tools for the wastes in current deposits); although, the sensors also have potential as dispersion monitors during any future processing and storage of the Legacy wastes, as well as many other storage, clarifier or thickener systems across a wide range of industrial processing operations. ABS data of mixed glass powder dispersions was analysed and compared to scattering theory, to understand the correlations between acoustic attenuation and particulate concentration. The ABS was also calibrated to measure changes in average particulate concentration within a settling suspension over time, and showed the depth-wise segregation of the dispersion through the settling column at different particular time intervals. It was found that observed hindered settling also led to an increase in particulate concentration over the sludge zone and significant segregation occurred at moderate time intervals, due to the broad size distribution of the aggregates measured. It is hoped in future that these sensors may be able to be fitted to robotic handlers that have been installed onsite (and previously used for sampling), allowing fully automatic in situ sludge analysis.

Robotic system for the remote measurement of radioactivity in the reactor areas was developed. The BROKK robotic system replaces hand-held radiation measuring tools. The system consists of a collimated gamma detector, a standard gamma detector, color CCD video camera and searchlights, all mounted on a robotic platform (BROKK). The signals from the detectors are coupled with the video signals and are transferred to an operator’s console via a radio channel or a cable. Operator works at a safe position. The video image of the object with imposed exposure dose rate from the detectors generates an image on the monitor screen, and the images are recorded for subsequent analysis. Preliminary work has started for the decommissioning of a research reactor at the RRC «Kurchatov Institute». Results of the remote radioactivity measurements with new system during radiation inspection waste storage of this reactor are presented and discussed.

The removal of surface contamination is a major challenge for nearly all nuclear facilities undergoing, or awaiting, decommissioning. Conventional means of surface decontamination can expose workers to unnecessary hazards, and are often not fit-for-purpose due to size constraints or weight restrictions. Additionally, conventional methods are not always easily deployed remotely due to their complexity or required services. The use of ultra high pressure water for surface decontamination, known as hydrolasing, is recognized as a technology which can be used in various applications requiring surface removal. Hydrolasing is an advantageous technology for many reasons including its versatility, overall simplicity and relative ease of remote deployment. For the nuclear industry, one of the largest challenges with regards to the use of hydrolasing is the requirement for the full recovery of the injected water and removed solids. For non-nuclear applications, there is often no requirement for recovery of the liquid and solid waste, which has led to few system designs which will recover the waste in full. S.A. Robotics’ experience with the deployment of ultra high pressure water systems for nuclear applications has shown that full recovery of injected water and removed solids is achievable in both underwater and in-air applications. Innovative equipment and system design have allowed S.A. Robotics’ hydrolasing systems to achieve near 100% solid and liquid recovery during concrete hydrolasing. This technology has been deployed for Fluor Hanford at Hanford’s K-Basins, as well as for UKAEA as part of the Windscale Piles decommissioning project. The purpose of this paper is to provide a short description of the hydrolasing process and the associated waste issues, describe the unique design features of S.A. Robotics’ hydrolasing systems which combat these issues, and provide an overview of two of the hydrolasing projects that S.A. Robotics has completed.

The decommissioning of the Windscale Pile 1 reactor, fifty years after the 1957 fire, is one of the most technically challenging decommissioning projects in the UK, if not the world. This paper presents a summary of the 1957 Windscale Pile 1 accident, its unique challenges and a new technical approach developed to safely and efficiently decommission the two Windscale Pile Reactors. The reactors will be decommissioned using a top down approach that employs an array of light weight, carbon fiber, high payload robotic arms to remove the damaged fuel, the graphite core, activated metals and concrete. This relatively conventional decommissioning approach has been made possible by a recently completed technical assessment of reactor core fire and criticality risk which concluded that these types of events are not credible if relatively simple controls are applied. This paper presents an overview of the design, manufacture and testing of equipment to remove the estimated 15 tons of fire damaged fuel and isotopes from the Pile 1 reactor. The paper also discusses recently conducted characterization activities which have allowed for a refined waste estimate and conditioning strategy. These data and an innovative approach have resulted in a significant reduction in the estimated project cost and schedule.

This paper describes the techniques and approaches used in the decommissioning of a Caesium-137 sealed source production facility belonging to Amersham plc. The facility become redundant in 1991. The facility comprised of nine interconnected containment boxes operated from behind a seven-inch lead wall using tongs. Viewing was through lead glass windows. After operations had ceased the facility had deteriorated due to radiation damage. The plastic ventilation system and transfer tunnels between the boxes had collapsed. Some of the viewing windows had also become crazed preventing direct viewing into the boxes. Man entry into the facility was not possible due to the high doserates. The facility contained in the order of 150TBq (4000Ci) of activity with initial ambient doserates in the facility circa 5S v/h γ. There was no acceptable route for transfer of waste out of the facility. The facility was expected to continue to deteriorate further. The project started with an options study in 1993 and was followed on with detailed planning, design and build of bespoke equipment and installing it, followed by the decommissioning operations beginning in 1997. The facility was adjacent to other fully operational facilities less than 1/2 metre away. The equipment designed and built included: • Telerobotic System; • Remote Waste Posting Facility; • New Primary Ventilation System; • Secondary Containment, with its own ventilation system; • Maintenance Facility for repairs to the Telerobotic System. The equipment was successfully deployed and used to size reduce the total contents of the facility and the fibreglass containment boxes themselves. 2300kg of ILW was packed remotely into 14litre waste cans and then remotely posted out for safe storage. The doserates on the waste cans was up to 30S v/h γ. The remaining structure was then decontaminated remotely. When this work was completed in 2001, approximately 150TBq of activity was removed, which was 99.9% of the total activity in the facility. The ambient doserate in the facility was then reduced to 1–3mSv/h allowing man entry into the facility to complete the decommissioning. This is a significant achievement for robotic decommissioning. After a year of manual decommissioning and dismantling the ambient doserate in the facility was reduced to less than 10μSv/h and loose activity levels to less than 0.1Bq/cm 2 . The dose received by the team during remote decommissioning was 30man mSv over a four year period. This included 12man mSv for maintenance of the Telerobotic System. The team received a similar figure of 30man mSv during manual decommissioning operations but over a one year period.