Novovoronezhskaya Nuclear Power Plant
Preparation and demolition operations to implement the project on Installing a Process Complex for Plasma Recycling of Solid Radioactive Waste at Novovoronezhskaya Nuclear Power Plant:
- design operations: a work method statement for dismantling reinforced concrete structures of the steam generator, main circulator, and main loop isolation valve;
- demolition of floor slabs and making holes at the -3.40 and +2.00 elevations;
- demolition of reinforced concrete structures in the building of the radioactive waste plasma recycling complex at the +14.00 elevation;
- radioactive drains at the plasma recycling process complex of Novovoronezhskaya Nuclear Power Plant;
- making holes in the slab at the -3.40 elevation;
- cutting and deactivating baskets for spent nuclear fuel in controlled access areas of units 1 and 2;
- disposing of and fragmenting three sections of a high-temperature isotope container and a repair container in controlled access areas of units 1 and 2;
- fragmenting baskets for spent nuclear fuel extracted from the mounting hole of the steam generator/main circulator room 1 in unit 1.
The project was complicated by the lack of technical solutions for dismantling large equipment of the main circulator within constrained space and under unfavorable radiation levels. A method of route optimization of the sequence of radioactive elements dismantling was developed to minimize the staff’s dose rates. The optimal sequence of dismantling is determined by a custom-developed program that takes into account the limitations associated with the procedure of dismantling facilities located at various elevations or parts of the same structure.
The Program of Testing the Process of Concrete Structures Fragmentation was developed together with experts from the scientific & technical center on decommissioning nuclear power plant units at the All-Russian Research Institute for Nuclear Power Plants Operation (VNIIEAES) to perform the work on fragmenting equipment foundations in the premises of units 1 and 2 of Novovoronezhskaya Nuclear Power Plant with cabled diamond-wire cutting systems.
Materials: reinforced concrete, metal structures.
