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Remote Tool Carrier
The Project
As part of life extension refurbishment of CANDU reactors, highly irradiated fuel channel components must be removed and replaced. For this “Retubing” process, hundreds of irradiated and non-irradiated reactor components, tools and equipment must be transported and manipulated between the reactor face and other equipment on the reactor vault floor. Shown in yellow below is a Numet supplied multi-axis, gantry style, tele-robotic, Remote Tool Carrier (RTC) designed to meet the complex handling requirements of this refurbishment process.
The Solution
The RTC system is mounted inside a shielded enclosure that can traverse up and down the face of the reactor. Combined with the vertical travel capability of the shielded enclosure, the RTC is able to access all fuel channel sites. The RTC is designed to transport and manipulate tools and equipment within the shielded enclosure as well as between Numet’s Worktable Tooling Platforms (also shown in yellow above) at the reactor face, and the reactor vault floor. The RTC also removes all of the highly irradiated channel components from the reactor and transports them to shielding casks on the vault floor.
Control of the system is accomplished locally through a pendant control, or remotely from a console located in a Control Center outside of the containment vault. The control system design includes many operating and safety features such as software and hardware interlocks. Primary and backup modes of operation are employed with duplicate redundant drives on each axis. The equipment has a lift capacity of 3000 lbs with a positional accuracy up to +/- 0.063”
Supply of the RTC included a full-scale mock-up for mounting and functionally testing all design aspects of the system.
RTC Attached To The
Shielding Enclosure
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RTC Hoist Carrying
a reactor component
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RTC Shown With
Worktable Tool Carriers
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Project Responsibility Highlights
Complete mechanical and electrical system assembly
Software Development
Production Drawings
Fabrication
Commissioning
Operation and Maintenance Manuals
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