Page 42 - Nuclear Plant Journal Digital Edition: January - February 2013
Basic HTML Version
42
Nuclear Plant Journal, January-February 2013
NPJ Advertiser Web Directory
the bolts, permanently securing the collar
in the reactor. Several onboard high
resolution cameras throughout the system
allowed the robot operators to deploy and
manipulate the robot’s movements, and
reliably conduct the repair work with
high levels of accuracy.
The robotic system was designed
to make continual repeated trips in and
out of the reactor, repairing a single fuel
guide tube on each trip. Within days,
all affected parts of the reactor could be
repaired, such that outage critical path
time was not affected.
Results
Rapid Development & Minimized
Outage
The Diakont robotic system was
developed, manufactured, and delivered
in three months so that the reactor could
be repaired and returned to service. This
rapid development was possible through
a close working relationship with the
engineers from Diakont and the staff from
the operating utility, Rosenergoatom.
A full-scale mockup was fabricated at
Figure 2- Installation Robot Aligning to the Fuel Guide Tube
Diakont’s facility in order to validate
and qualify the system solution, and to
perform operator training.
Diakont first utilized the robotic
system to complete the repair operations
at the first unit of the Nuclear Power
Plant between August and November
2011, installing extension collars on over
209 guide tubes. Compared with other
Reactor Repair...
(Continued from page 41)
American Crane & Equipment
Corporation
AREVA NP, Inc.
Ceradyne Boron Products
Diakont
Energy Steel & Supply Co.
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy
HF Controls
HukariAscendent
Seal Master
Siempelkamp Nukleartechnik
GmbH
Thermo Scientific- CIDTEC
Underwater Construction
Corporation
UniTech Services Group
Westinghouse Electric
Company LLC
methods considered, the use of this robotic
system reduced the quantity of rad waste
produced, reduced the personnel dose
exposure by a factor of 200, and reduced
the repair duration by a factor of 3.
Contact: Diakont, telephone: (858)
551-5551, email:
.
