The Division of Remote Handling and Robotics (DRHR) has been working on design and development of various remote handling tools and automation system for handling active radioisotopes/spent fuel for various process systems. This article brings out first-of-its-kind advanced automation system designed for transfer of spent fuel bundles (pressurized heavy water reactors) for nuclear reprocessing plants. Introduction of this automation system for reprocessing plant is aimed at transferring the fuel bundles directly from fuel handling area (FHA) of storage pool to the dissolver cell in an automated way, without the necessity of using charging cask. This also contributes in eliminating dependency on skilled man-power and reduction of man-rem consumption. System design is such that it can easily be adopted to handle fuel from 220 MWe PHWR as well as 540 MWe/700 MWe PHWRs with minimum changes. Provision has also been kept for manual changing of spent fuel in case of nonavailability of automation system.
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