AmCam: Safer, faster and better value decommissioning

Project

Comprehensive characterisation toolkit

Benefits

Identification of contamination hotspots, which when removed can allow relevant gloveboxes to be reclassified as LLW, saving approximately £30,000 per glovebox. AmCam also provides an indirect safety benefit as operators can find and highlight areas of high contamination in real time. Operators upskilled with use of characterisation tools and reviewing footage offline aids planning and learning capture on effectiveness of decontamination techniques.

Current Status

AmCam is now routinely used to aid in the decontamination of glovebox internals. It is also being used in other areas to support wider characterisation activities and is expected to be deployed in additional environments, including other NDA Group sites (Dounreay). It won both the 2023 Sellafield Wave and NDA Group Employee Awards in the innovation categories.

Delivery Partners

Cavendish Nuclear Ltd

Contact Details

Nicholas Clarke

technical.innovation@sellafieldsites.com

Our site has over 650 alpha contaminated gloveboxes requiring characterisation for POCO and decommissioning. There are difficulties with characterising the gloveboxes: swab samples are random and inefficient for confirming hotspots, surface scraping involves time-consuming laboratory analysis and self-shielding in surface contamination can limit data gathered by probe.

Sellafield Ltd and Cavendish Nuclear have developed AmCam, a handheld radiometric inspection device. The device has a matched field of view that produces a live video and a real-time count rate from a gamma detector. Therefore, it gives a real-time indication of radiation levels in the area shown and can indicate levels of activity and shielding present.

The small size and real-time functionality of the device makes it ideal for deploying in a glovebox and quickly identifying areas of high-count rate. The recording provides evidence of the survey coverage and radiological information which can be analysed offline.

A collaborative delivery team was formed to undertake an active demonstration on gloveboxes suspected to be above LLW thresholds. AmCam was deployed via a modified PVC sleeve attached to an existing glove port in seven gloveboxes. The clear view and good range of motion allowed operators to clearly identify and decontaminate hotspots in real time, whilst maintaining containment.

Once the survey indicated no remaining hotspots, In-Situ Object Counting System (ISOCS) measurements were taken, which allowed five gloveboxes to be reclassified as LLW. Storing gloveboxes as LLW instead of Plutonium Contaminated Material (PCM) saves around £30,000 per glovebox. Appropriate segregation of waste to the appropriate waste route may mean that additional PCM storage facilities are not required.

Going forward, AmCam is now a business-as-usual tool that is being used daily to reclassify gloveboxes. This will enable laboratories to be repurposed or decommissioned sooner than expected. AmCam can also act as a springboard to support wider alpha decommissioning activities within the NDA group and UK nuclear industry.