DISMANTLING OF GLOVEBOXES FOR MOX FUEL FABRICATION BY A GLOVEBOX DISMANTLING FACILITY

摘要

The Nuclear Cycle Development Institute (JNC) installed a glovebox dismantling facilityrn(GBDF) in the Plutonium Fuel Production Facility (PFPF) of the Tokai works. The purpose ofrnGBDF is to dismantle after-service gloveboxes for the MOX pellet fabrication process in PFPFrn(GBMPs) for safely storing and recovering the hold-up MOX powder from GBMPs. GBDF has arnfunction of a glovebox for preventing scattering radioactive nuclides and is used for dismantlingrnafter-service gloveboxes repeatedly for decreasing the quantity of secondary wastes.rnRemote-controlled devices such as an arm-type robot, and plasma arc cutting systems arerninstalled in it for the purposes of decreasing irradiation dose and increasing work efficiencyrnrespectively. Following items are considered as merits for the application of remote-controlledrndevices to the dismantling works in comparison with the ordinary dismantling method,rn-Improving working conditions (no capability of injury and inhalation contamination area)rn-Decreasing irradiation dose of workersrn-Decreasing generation of secondary wastesrn-Decreasing personal costrnThe remote-controlled method was applied to constantly repeated works, and simple andrnlong-time works. Approximately 20% of whole dismantling works were performed byrnremote-controlled devices. After-service GBMPs were dismantled safely and successfully byrnusing GBDF. It was confirmed that the remote-controlled devices were useful for dismantlingrnafter-service GBMPs from the viewpoint of safety and cost reduction. It is expected that the GBrndismantling method by using GBDF will be more economical than the ordinary dismantlingrnmethod with consideration of increasing the fraction of the remote-controlled dismantling.