PLatform based on Emerging and Interoperable Applications for enhanced Decommissioning processES

Project Information

PLEIADES

Grant agreement ID: 899990

DOI

10.3030/899990

Project closed

EC signature date 20 May 2020

Start date 1 October 2020

End date 30 November 2023

Funded under

• Euratom

Total cost

€ 4 348 848,58

EU contribution

€ 2 800 000,00

Coordinated by

COMMISSARIAT A L ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES
France

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - PLEIADES (PLatform based on Emerging and Interoperable Applications for enhanced Decommissioning processES)

Reporting period: 2022-04-01 to 2023-11-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

In the next decades, more than 400 nuclear facilities, hundreds of fossil power stations and an unnamed number of chemical plants will face decommissioning. Thus, it will be inevitable to find ways of decommissioning and deconstruction of various facilities in an efficient and cost-oriented manner.

The PLEIADES project (PLatform based on Emerging and Interoperable Applications for enhanced Decommissioning processES) aims at making the decommissioning of nuclear facilities more efficient, through demonstrating an innovative digital decommissioning approach inspired by the BIM (Building Information Modelling) concept.
To achieve this, PLEIADES addresses the development of a software platform and associated methodology, reusing 3D modelling and BIM applications, for costing, planning, radiation protection and waste management
The idea is to inspire from the BIM concept, which enables all the information related to a building to be managed in a single 3D model. Adapting it to the dismantling of a nuclear installation, PLEIADES gathers in a BIM-like model all the data useful for scenario simulations improving safety, minimising radiation exposure and optimising costs and schedules.

PLEIADES project aims first at defining the requirements and specifications, and specifying a common ontology for nuclear decommissioning. Based on these specifications, a platform will be developped including a set of innovative modules, based on simulation technologies.
Next, the platform will be implemented on use cases based on data from three different nuclear sites: the Santa María de Garoña nuclear power plant in Burgos (Spain), the Halden research reactor in Norway and the BCOT nuclear maintenance facility in Bollène (France). Simulations on these real cases will enable to highlight strengths and weaknesses of such a digital approach.

The expected results of the project are foreseen to:
• Improve safety, specifically by providing improvements in radiological protection, communication between stakeholders and training of workers.
• Reduce costs by enabling better and more standardized costing, as well as higher optimization of the waste management process.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the first period, following activities were performed and finished:
- requirements analysis and platform specification
- decommissioning ontology definition
- platform architecture design, data-base design and platform API definition according to the ontology
- platform server and API development
- use cases and scenarios definition; and associated data identification
- data collection
- market analysis

During the second period, following activities were performed:
- platform development and tests
- platform clients connection development and software modules development
- data collection complements and 3D-model building for the demonstrations
- 6 User Stories detailed definition, associated scenarios and tools preparation
- User Stories demonstrations execution
- PLEIADES modelling approach’s strengths and weaknesses evaluation
- PLEIADES platform evaluation
- Market analysis in nuclear and non-nuclear domains
- Training and promotion preparation


All along the project, the consortium provided associated deliverables, promoted the project and communicated about the project outcomes in different conferences, workshops and on the project web-site.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The “Decommissioning Core Ontology” activity considered the specific development of the ontology in the area of measurements and waste management with international participants from the project but also from interested parties such as IAEA, OECD-NEA. The ontology was presented in a number of international conferences and at IAEA and OECD venues. In parallel, PLEIADES members have participated in a number of international expert meetings, organized by EC-JRC, IAEA and OECD-NEA to align their efforts in developing a decommissioning taxonomy. This participation ensures a high level of compatibility between the international expert approaches and the PLEIADES approach.

Additionally, the development of the API and its release as open source allows especially SME companies to provide small scale specific and specialised solutions for decommissioning.

For safety aspects, the PLEIADES approach supported by the development of the decommissioning ontology is considered as a key point in the development of digitals solutions and may be used as a basis for further works to enhance safety reviews, in particular with a “augmented expertise process” using these emerging approach (ontology based) and technologies (3D models, BIM, AI, etc.).

Finally, the PLEIADES project allowed a better understanding of the digital tools that are used for nuclear decommissioning projects and their impact at different levels. Thanks to research in the interoperability and different combinations of these technologies, PLEIADES enables a better roadmap for the future development of technologies in nuclear decommissioning projects.

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