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www.rolls-royce.com NUCLEAR INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY

Mechanical Systems and Component Engineering

Full Service Waste Management

Rolls-Royce has been helping customers to successfully solve difficult radioactive waste handling and treatment problems, in a wide range of applications, for many years.

We have the tools and expertise to provide custom equipment for handling both solid and liquid waste, at any point in the waste treatment cycle, from characterization through processing to final storage.

Characterization

Process systems (liquid waste)

If your application requires extraction of a process fluid sample from an operating system, Rolls-Royce can offer a number of solutions. Dependent upon the system conditions (fluid, pressure, temperature), we can provide manual sampling systems with shielded bottles, syringe sampling systems, and remotely operated in-line grab samplers. Pressure reducing devices can be added to reduce system pressures for manual sampling, and coolers can be used to reduce temperature as required. They are designed to safely extract a fluid sample for further analysis of physical, chemical, or radiological properties, with minimal risk of spread of contamination.

Tank waste (solid/liquid/sludge)

Rolls-Royce has a number of remotely operated arm designs to inspect or survey tank contents, or to deliver various end effectors to take physical samples. The basic designs can be scaled for a range of applications, and are designed to be compact when nested to allow raising and lowering through tank risers.

Retrieval

Tank waste

Rolls-Royce has supplied articulating arms with various end effectors to reach deep into tanks and remove troublesome waste. They are designed for harsh environments, with high radiation fields and corrosive chemicals, and where tank integrity is of utmost importance. They are compact in design to fit through tank risers, but with maximum reach to gain access to as much of the tank as possible. For waste retrieval, the arm can be fitted with a vacuum hose connected to a vacuum outside the tank, and radiation-tolerant cameras can be attached to the arm for in-tank viewing. Arms are manufactured using materials easily decontaminated as they are withdrawn from the tank.

Activated reactor internals or contaminated components

Rolls-Royce remote handling equipment is robust and reliable to ensure trouble-free operation for the life of a campaign. Design features minimize contamination holdup and facilitate easy decontamination. Redundancy is provided for critical drives to address potential failure modes. Radiation

Full Service Waste Management

tolerant instrumentation is used where necessary. We have provided major equipment to reactor refurbishment projects, and for retrieving spent fuel from temporary storage for re-packaging.

Clean-up/Decontamination

Tank washdown

The same type of remote arms used for characterization can have spray nozzles fitted to permit washdown of the interiors of waste storage tanks in tank farms. The arm’s reach provides maximum access to the tank and internals to spray internal surface in order to remove surface contamination and wash debris and particulate to the bottom of the tank where it can be removed.

System decontamination

Rolls-Royce products can help customers reduce background radiation fields from internal contamination of piping and components. We’ve supplied decontamination systems, utilizing dilute acid and base solutions and ion exchange processes, to remove activated products from the inner surfaces of systems and components. Particulate is captured in filters, and dissolved ions are deposited on ion exchange resin. Spent resin can be sluiced into drums for storage and future processing (immobilized in grout or resin).

Containment

Temporary holding flasks

If temporary containment is required to move waste prior to further processing, Rolls-Royce can help design and fabricate a custom enclosure or shielded flask. We’ve supplied a number of custom enclosures for a variety of waste, for example steam generator scale, spent fuel, spent ion exchange resin, and contaminated filter baskets.

Rolls-Royce has designed and manufactured specialized clamps for retaining the lid of a Dry Storage Container, a large steel and concrete flask used for long term storage of CANDU fuel. The lid clamp ensures that the lid is retained on the container during removal from the spent fuel pond and during transport to a welding station. The clamp is robust enough to retain the lid during postulated accident events, and specifically a drop and tip accident, and must provide for IAEA safeguards to be attached.

Transfer

Liquid waste

When moving liquid radioactive waste, the integrity of the piping system is of utmost importance. From engineering and design through to fabrication, examination and final testing, all details must be considered. Analysis must consider not only pressure and deadweight, but thermal expansion stresses and potential seismic loads. Intelligent design and careful consideration of supports and anchors is extremely important. These systems are typically welded construction, with weld examination to highest ASME standards. We have provided system complete piping system designs for installation in existing stations, requiring interface with station documentation systems and tradespeople, and skid-mounted systems fabricated in our facility for easy integration into a plant with minimal on-site fabrication and commissioning.

Solid waste

Depending on the constraints of the application and QA requirements, we can use a commercial vehicle with modifications to suit site requirements and specific flask or container configurations, or custom design an entire vehicle if the application demands. We’ve supplied carts for flasks weighing a few thousand pounds, to a very large vehicle to move a flask weighing in excess of 40 tons.

In one case a customer identified a need to move lead shielded filters and ion exchange columns from their operating area to a service area, which required a vehicle with the ability to turn about its own centre and move through very tight quarters. We were able to provide a custom vehicle, including all design, software, fabrication and testing, that allowed the customer to safely move the vessels within the constraints of the existing facility.

Long reach arm

Dry storage container in bay clamp

Rolls-Royce designed a mobile facility to accommodate interfacing of a variety of station flasks, the goal being to transfer active components from a variety of unique station flasks into a flask rated for public road transport. The equipment allows very heavy lead shielded flasks to easily be moved and aligned to permit transfer with minimal personnel exposure, and enables the customer to move active components off-site to a waste storage facility.

Processing

Gas or Liquid waste

Process fluid streams can be subjected to a variety of processes to extract particulate or active elements or remove excess liquid: filtration, ion exchange, reverse osmosis, absorption, distillation, evaporation, or a combination of methods. The choice depends on a number of factors, including fluid characteristics, decontamination factor desired, and cost. Rolls-Royce can provide everything from components to complete turn-key systems. We can help develop a process concept into a detailed flowsheet/process and instrumentation diagram, specify and select components, perform all detailed engineering and design, and produce detailed manufacturing drawings. Our fabrication facility can manufacture, assemble and test the entire system, ready for installation. Or if only a single component is required, we can provide detailed design and manufacture, including any substantiating engineering calculations.

We’ve supplied a wide range of products, and a number of turn-key systems, for processing gaseous and liquid waste streams. Some examples include:

• Acompleteskidmounteddecontaminationsystem,includingionexchange, filtration, chemical injection, and resin transfer systems.

• Cross-flowfiltrationsystemforincreasingsolidsconcentrationinawastestream in preparation for further processing.

• Furnacesforsaltdistillation,usingInconelmaterialsandcustomheaterelements.

• Awidevarietyoffiltrationcomponents,fromsmally-strainerstolargelead shielded multi-element filter vessels.

Solid waste

Solid waste processing can employ of a variety of processes, from cleaning and drying to volume reduction. For example, we have designed, built and tested a system that uses a combination of moderate heating and vacuum to dry spent nuclear fuel in preparation for long term storage. In this case it’s important that the fuel is dry to preclude evolution of hydrogen from radiolysis of the water, and to prevent further degradation of the storage containers. Only moderate heating is used to avoid evolution of undesirable gases from organics that may be present.

Re-Packaging

Solid waste

Our experience in re-packaging has been focused on helping solve legacy waste issues. We are currently assisting a customer to get waste from temporary storage, with poor environmental control, into a new longer term storage facility. The primary concern is to handle the waste safely and in a way that avoids damage, potential spread of contamination, and personnel exposure. We’ve developed the preliminary design for new storage tubes into a product that can be reliably manufactured. We’re also supplying a packaging station, which helps control the environmental conditions and spread of contamination, and minimizes personnel exposure to radiation, during transfer of the waste into the new containers.

Fuel packaging system

Solid liquid separation system

Salt distillation furnace

Vacuum drying process skid

Vessel transfer cart

Active component transfer system

Rolls-Royce Power Engineering plc PO Box 2000, Derby DE21 7BD, England

Tel: +44 (0)1332 632688 Fax: +44 (0)1332 622936

Email: nuclearsolutions@rolls-royce.com www.rolls-royce.com

Rolls-Royce Power Civil nuclear Canada 678 Neal Drive, PO Box 1776 Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, K9J 7X6

Key Point of Contact: Technical Sales

Tel: +1(705) 743-2708 Fax: +1(705) 743 3216

© 2010 Rolls-Royce plc

Whilst this information is given in good faith, no warranty or representation is given concerning such information, which must not be taken as establishing any contractual or other commitment binding upon Rolls-Royce plc or any of its subsidiary companies.

Full Service Waste Management

Transport

Liquid radioactive material

Tritiated heavy water is moved between licensed nuclear facilities for detritiation. The transportation packages to be used for these shipments required upgrades prior to putting them into service. We recommended and implemented upgrade methods, and undertook a complete manufacturability review to recommend design changes to aid manufacturing of future transportation packages, while maintaining regulatory compliance.

Storage

Liquid waste

CANDU stations require significant storage for tritiated and contaminated heavy water from moderator and primary heat transport systems. Heavy waters systems are typically manufactured using corrosion resistant materials, and must be kept extremely clean during fabrication to avoid introducing halogens and free iron into the heavy water. We supply additional inventory for on-site storage of heavy water (6 tanks, 1.38 Mg each), including evaluation of existing systems and tie-ins, and technical support for installation.

Solid waste

In addition to detailed design of long-term storage containers, Rolls-Royce can perform specialized qualification testing, for example particle migration through threads of a storage container. We have provided a detailed review for the manufacturing of storage containers for spent nuclear fuel, manufactured a prototype to validate the design and manufacturing processes, and ultimately manufactured more than 100 spent fuel storage containers.

Dry storage container fabrication

Multipurpose transport container

Cross section of D20 tank

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