• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.606-612
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• 2018

Many nuclear power plants in Japan are approaching the end of their planned operational life spans. They must be decommissioned safely in the near future. Using augmented reality (AR), workers can intuitively understand information related to decommissioning work. Three-dimensional (work-site) reconstruction models of dismantling fields are useful for workers to observe the conditions of dismantling field situations without visiting the actual fields. This study, based on AR and work-site reconstruction models, developed and evaluated an information reference system. The evaluation consists of questionnaires and interview surveys administered to six nuclear power plant workers who used this system, along with a scenario. Results highlight the possibility of reducing time and mitigating mistakes in dismantling fields. Results also show the ease of referring to information in dismantling fields. Nevertheless, it is apparently difficult for workers to build reconstruction models of dismantling fields independently.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.297-306
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• 2021

In this study, basic strategies for the decommissioning and site remediation of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS) were investigated. Six scenarios were formulated based on two of the three decommissioning strategies of nuclear power plants defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA): immediate dismantling and deferred dismantling. A multicriteria decision analysis was performed to analyze the preferences of the options from the viewpoints of the timeframe to complete decommissioning, the resulting waste, the site usability, and the availability of the radioactive waste disposal route. The same six scenarios were applied to both the FDNPS and the nuclear power plants that ceased operation after a normal plant life cycle for comparison. For the FDNPS, the decommissioning project involved fuel debris retrieval, dismantling, and site remediation. The analysis results suggest that the balance between the amount of waste and the time to achieve the end state may be one of the most critical factors to consider when planning the decommissioning and site remediation of the FDNPS.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.73.1-73
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• 2001

To utilize the uranium resources contained in the spent nuclear fuel generated from the nuclear power plants, the remote handling and dismantling technology is required. The dismantling process of the sport fuel is the most common process involved in the spent fuel recycling, the rod consolidation and the disposal processes. Since the machine used in the dismantling process are located and operated in isolated space, so called a hot cell, the reliability of machines is very important. To enhance the reliability of the process, in this research, the graphical monitoring system is developed for the fuel dismantling process. The graphic model of each machine is composed of many parts and every parts of the graphic model are given their own kinematics. Using the kinematics and simulating the graphic model in the virtual environment, the validity of the conceptual design can be verified before ...

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.83-92
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• 2013

A novel methodology to evaluate remote dismantling equipment for a reactor pressure vessel (RPV) in a decommissioning project is presented in this paper. The remote dismantling equipment, mainly composed of cutting tools and positioning equipment, is absolutely required to cut and handle highly radioactive and large components in nuclear power plants (NPPs); this equipment has a great effect on the overall success of the decommissioning project. Conventional evaluation methods have only focused on cutting technologies or positioning equipment, although remote dismantling equipment cannot achieve its goal without organic interaction between the cutting tools and the positioning equipment. In this paper, the cutting tools and the positioning equipment are evaluated by performance parameters according to their original characteristics, the relationship between the two systems, and common factors. Finally, the remote dismantling equipment used in recent decommissioning projects has been evaluated based on the proposed methodology. The results of this paper are expected to be useful for future decommissioning projects.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.355-367
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• 2017

The decommissioning of Kori unit 1, which was permanently shut down in June of 2017, will be the first instance of the dismantling of a commercial nuclear power plant in Korea. The disposal of waste during the dismantling process accounts for a large part of the total decommissioning cost. Therefore, structures consisting of activated and contaminated concrete must be economically and safely dismantled by establishing a proper dismantling strategy. This study focuses on optimized dismantling and disposal scenarios pertaining to a biological shield. Several dismantling cases, regulations and technologies related to waste treatment as these practices pertain to nuclear power plants are analyzed. To minimize the amount of waste from the biological shield dismantling process, an optimized dismantling scenario is presented and disposal alternatives for dismantled concrete waste are proposed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2017.10a
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• pp.235-236
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• 2017

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.307-308
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• 2017

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.9
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• pp.3293-3298
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• 2022

Removing radioactive contaminated metal materials is a vital task during the decommissioning of nuclear power plants to reduce the cost of the post-dismantling process. The laser decontamination technique has been recognized as a key tool for a successful dismantling process as it enables a remote operation in radioactive facilities. It also minimizes exposure of workers to hazardous materials and reduces secondary waste, increasing the environmental friendless of the post-dismantling processing. In this work, we present a thorough and efficient laser decontamination approach using a single-mode continuous-wave (CW) laser. We subjected stainless steels to a surface-removal process that repetitively exposes the laser to a confined region of ~75 ㎛ at a high scanning rate of 10 m/s. We evaluate the decontamination performance by measuring the removal depth with a 3D scanning microscope and further investigate optimal removal conditions given practical parameters such as the laser power and scan properties. We successfully removed the metal surface to a depth of more than 40 ㎛ with laser power of 300 W and ten scans, showing the potential to achieve an extremely high DF more than 1000 by simply increasing the number of scans and the laser power for the decontamination of primary circuits.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.63-71
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• 2018

This paper discusses decommissioning procedure requirements management using requirement engineering to systematically manage the technical requirements and criteria that are required in decontamination and decommissioning activities, and the regulatory requirements that should be complied with in a decommissioning strategy for research reactors and nuclear power plants. A schema was designed to establish the traceability and change management related to the linkage between the regulatory requirements and technical criteria after classifying the procedures into four groups during the full life-cycle of the decommissioning. The results confirmed that the designed schema was successfully traced in accordance with the regulatory requirements and technical criteria required by various fields in terms of decontamination and decommissioning activities. In addition, the changes before and after the revision of the Nuclear Safety Act were also determined. The dismantling procedure requirement management system secured through this study is expected to be a useful tool in the integrated management of radioactive waste, as well as in the dismantling of research reactor and nuclear facilities.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.613-618
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• 2018

We are developing a shared remote control mobile robot for aerial work in nuclear power plants (NPPs); a robot consists of a mobile platform, a telescopic mast, and a dual-arm slave with a working tool. It is used at a high location operating the manual operation mechanism of a fuel changer of a heavy water NPP. The robot system can cut/weld a pipe remotely in the case of an emergency or during the dismantling of the NPP. Owing to the challenging control mission considering limited human operator cognitive capability, some remote tasks require a shared control scheme, which demands systematic software design and integration. Therefore, we designed the architecture of the software systematically.