Laser dismantling of the dissolver at the UP1 plant

Presented as a world premiere by Onet Technologies in December 2015, the laser technology demonstrated its full potential as part of the UP1 dissolver dismantling project at the spent fuel reprocessing facility at CEA's Marcoule site in France. The dismantling process was also nominated at the WNE Awards and received the SFEN technological innovation award in 2016.

This technology has also been selected by the Japanese government (METI*) as one of the key technologies for removing fuel debris from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi reactors. CEA and Onet Technologies have been working together since 2014 to develop this technology. Installation can be carried out manually or remotely using robots.

The ACFM inspection technique is based on the principles of electromagnetism. It is based on the measurement of variations in a magnetic field induced in a conductive material. Suitable for detecting open or underlying fatigue cracks, it can also be used in the presence of a coating.