Objective
1. Objectives
The main objective of coordinating the development of the LSI cutting tool with a filtration system is to cut parts made of very heavy gauge steel or with complex geometry, in air or under water and at high rates, without adversely affecting the building ventilation system, and without cost penalties due to accelerated replacement of the HEPA filters or of the filter shielding because of excessive radioactivity from cutting swarf. More specifically, the development objective for the LSI cutting tool is to cut stainless 250 mm thick steel or carbon steel plates at a rate of about 100 mm-min-1. The cutting tests will be performed in air; for this purpose, the test cell used for the previous contract (FI2D-0013) will be transported from Fontenay-aux-Roses to Saclay. KEI (Heidelberg, Germany will manufacture the LSI tool, and will train the CEA personnel responsible for the cutting tests. Preliminary tests will then be conducted to determine relation between the cutting rate and the workpiece thickness and to evaluate the secondary waste production. The test result may be imported into the DB-TOOLS data base. The objective of the self-cleaning filtration system is to trap 90% of the aerosols produced by the cutting tool (i.e. to extend the service life of the downstream filters by a factor of ten). The electrostatic filter will be equipped with the ASCADIN self-cleaning process developed by the CEA to demonstrate that the filters may be cleaned automatically without breaching the containment, without higher occupational dose rates and, above all, without shutting down the ventilation system.
The Swedish manufacturer CAMFIL will develop a new cleanable filtration system. After testing the ASCADIN process, the new CAMFIL filter will be installed for comparative assessment.
2. Expected Benefits
The primary advantage of this development is to allow
the use of a powerful thermal cutting process with no adverse effects on the ventilation system and filters of the nuclear facility to be dismantled. This contrasts with the experience of certain projects, which required multiple filter replacements, shielding of the filters, or a return to cleaner but much slower mechanical cutting systems.
The LSI cutting process implements a simple tool with inexpensive electric power requirements, but is capable of rapidly cutting a variety of materials in large thicknesses or with complex shapes, such as pressurized water reactor components.
The use of self-cleaning prefilter systems such as ASCADIN and the new CAMFIL filter should allow considerable operating cost savings on HEPA filters, occupational dose rates and unnecessary shielding.
Programme(s)
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
30205 Bagnols-sur-Cèze
France