Equipment development and removing wet radioactive spent resins from two 170 m³ reservoirs at the power plant by dewatering and transferring them into 3 m³ stainless steel containers, and storing the containers to the on-site solid radioactive waste dry storage facility.
Timeframe: 2013/2014 & 2017
This project consists of transferring the heat transport and moderator spent resins (produced from 1983 to 2013) from the two full spent resin storage tanks (170 m³ capacity) at the power plant into interim concrete structures at the site’s dry storage facility. The equipment consists of a remotely operated system and control, of a shielded pumping system to extract, fill and dewater 3 m³ stainless steel containers inside a shielded flask, and transferring resins to the on-site solid radioactive waste dry storage facility.
The main activities provided are:
- Commissioning of the resin transfer system and dry storage equipment after long-term storage
- Implementing modifications to the system to make it operational in cold weather (down to -5C)
- Designing and implementing modifications to the extraction system to improve the efficiency of the resin suction
- Writing of installation, operational and uninstallation/storage procedures
- Producing spare parts list
- Developing engineered method to remove remaining spent resins in the bottom of the rectangular tanks that are unattainable with existing system
- Technical support and engineering field services during the whole campaign for the operation of the system and equipment
- Training of the personnel on the use of the system and equipment
- Total amount of 290 m3 resins successfully transferred (with no incidents): 20 containers in 2013, 61 containers in 2014 and 25 containers in 2017
- Both tanks fully emptied by the end of 2017, first Candu 6 successfully emptying the resin tanks fully.
