Robotic size reduction of waste with laser cutting

Client issue

Nuclear sites produce a significant number of large (>0.5 m3) Intermediate level waste items. The large size, mass and activity of these items possess a challenge to their safe handling and disposal. Additionally, many nuclear sites are unable to physically store these items because of their size. Intermediate level waste (ILW) contaminated items, such as legacy Magnox (now NRS) skips, need to be reduced in size to maximise the packing efficiency of the waste sent to higher activity storage facilities.

Our Solution - Skip Size Reduction Facility (SSRF)

The Skip Size Reduction Facility (SSRF) active demonstrator will use Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) industrial robot systems to automatically reduce and re-pack legacy Magnox skips. The system can automatically cut and pack two skips to fit inside a third.

The SSRF has been installed on the Sellafield site and includes two “six-degrees of freedom” robots for automatic laser cutting and remote handling. The facility will remove human operators as much as possible from the nuclear and conventional hazards associated with size reducing and packing intermediate level contaminated waste. Size reduction and packing of skips in this way enables the volume of waste to be reduced by two thirds, making interim storage arrangements easier. The cutting system is capable of being adapted to accept other waste packages of different size and shape.

Fully integrated robotic systems that can perform the following functions:

• Import/Export
• Characterisation
• Liquor Removal
• Size Reduction
• Sort and Segregation
• Repackaging

Decommissioning Waste Services Partnership

As more plants are decommissioned, a capability is needed to process large discrete ILW items. There is currently no waste route for items of this nature and level of activity. The active demonstrator system, which has been installed on the Sellafield site, will prove the concept of size reduction and liquor removal of large contact hand-able intermediate level waste items.

All operations will be performed within a “Permacon” containment and size reduction will be carried out with diamond wire cutting technology.

The results

Key benefits of our systems include:

• Safer – Reducing the time people need to come into contact with contaminated materials when decommissioning and disposing of large ILW items and packages
• Faster – Increasing productivity and reducing the schedule for decommissioning large items and packages
• Cheaper – Reducing lifetime cost for the decommissioning and disposal of ILW from nuclear plants