September-October 2017 NPJ

Nuclear Plant Journal, September-October 2017 NuclearPlantJournal.com 45 up and down the wall in an overlapping manner, similar to vacuuming a carpet, while using the onboard and bird’s eye view camera to identify any obstacles in the way. A second operator, as needed, was positioned near the cavity edge and supported umbilical cable management. After performing the decontamination passes on the first wall, the robotics operator disengaged the tool from the wall and operated the ROV in “flying” mode to navigate to the next area within the refueling cavity. This robotics operator repeated this procedure until all of the walls and floor were decontaminated. This particular decontamination project also included the curved surfaces of the drywell head. The decon tool’s brush speed varied in each section based on the level of debris – slower speeds were employed in areas with high levels of debris to avoid excessively disturbing the material. Field engineers monitored the process to ensure that the vacuum shroud effectively captured the dislodged debris. During this process, the robotics operator demonstrated the controls to plant personnel and had them operate the tool as well. Immediately following the decontam- ination procedure, the field team prepared a staging area near the cavity edge with a containment receptacle and the necessary tools for decontaminating the decon tool and performing the brush removal. With the assistance of a plant crane operator, field engineers used the overhead crane with a pneumatic hook to hoist the decon tool out of the water and into the contain- ment receptacle. To remove the excess wa- ter from the hose, technicians then turned on the pump momentarily before discon- necting the vacuum hose from the ROV. Finally, the field team cut off the consumable crawler treads and removed the brush from the shroud – these items along with disposable personal protective equipment (PPE) and wiping rags were the only radwaste from the decontamination procedure. Changing the brush out is very simple, requiring only two hand knobs to remove. Once the decon tool was wiped dry, the system was packed in an LSA transit case per the site requirements. Decontamination Results At the spring 2017 refueling outage at Perry Nuclear Power Plant, decontamination services were so effective that no additional manual cavity decon was required after drain-down. Using the tool’s ability to swim, attach, and crawl, Diakont decontaminated surfaces designated by the plant operator. Preliminary surveys indicated that all contamination levels were reduced to <50K dpm/100 cm2, helping the utility meet their INPO/Industry collective radiation exposure goals. Additionally, the tool is modular and can be used without the brush assembly to perform visual inspections and can also be configured with different attachments to support many other underwater applications. Plant personnel at Perry Nuclear Power Plant are planning on using the tool to examine underwater boots next summer in the suppression pool. Contact: Michael Olmstead, First Energy Corporation, telephone: (440) 280- 5204, email: molmstead@firstenergycorp. com. Structures for fuel processing plant for Fast Breeder Reactors and allied facilities including civil, electrical and mechanical works. The project is to be completed in 48 months. When completed, this would serve as fuel processing facility for Fast Breeder Reactors. This is the fourth contract awarded to HCC by IGCAR. Prior to this order, the company has received three contracts from IGCAR to build Administrative Blocks, Township and Metallic Fuel Plant. Some of the major work HCC is currently executing for Department of Atomic Energy includes the first phase of Integrated Nuclear Recycle Plant of BARC in Tarapur and PWHR Units 7 & 8 (2×700 MW) at Rawatbhata, Kota, Rajasthan for NPCIL Contact: Sandeep Sawant, Hindustan Construction Company Ltd, telephone: 91 22 2575 1000, email: sandeep. sawant@hccindia.com. Simulator Update L3 MAPPS announced that under a contract with Swiss industrial technology company ABB it will update the simulator it provided in 2006 for DTE Energy’s Fermi 2 nuclear power plant based in Newport, Michigan. The work calls for modification of the 120-kilovolt switchyard portion of the simulator in conjunction with associated changes to the actual switchyard equipment itself and ABB’s Symphony® Plus process control system that controls it. All work is expected to be completed by the end of 2017. L3 MAPPS will update the simulator’s process models and provide a hardware interface consisting of a compact I/O system and power supplies that will allow the Fermi 2 plant simulation to communicate with a replica of the ABB Distributed Control System (DCS) hardware and software for the 120-kilovolt switchyard. The interface and simulation will aid in factory acceptance testing by DTE Energy at ABB’s facility in Wickliffe, Ohio. Contact: Sean Bradley, L3 MAPPS, telephone: (514) 787-4953, email: media. mapps@l3t.com. Contracts... ( Continued from page 15) Tool in crawler mode, decontaminating the wall.