Many of the nuclear industries facilities across the world have areas where the walls and floors have been contaminated, e.g. storage ponds and cells. To effectively decommission these sites Barrnon have developed the Rotocutter system which uses a mechanical cutting chain to break up and remove hard waste.

The floor variation of the Rotocutter has been developed during the Mechanical Waste Gathering System (MWSG project for Washington River Protection Services (WRPS). The Rotocutter can be connected to a tracked crawling ROV to remove contaminant from floors as the ROV moves along the surface. The Rotocutter is designed for dry hard heel and bitumen encased waste as well high strength concrete (for example C35). The waste can be vacuum conveyed or fluidised and pumped to the appropriate waste stream.

If you require efficient removal of dry waste from floors then talk to Barrnon about our rotocutting technologies.

Key points

• Macerates and collects dried nuclear sediments
• Fine cutter-depth control
• Waste fluidised and pumped for transfer
• Remote operation using umbilical system
• Modular system
• Compact for confined spaces
• Deployment through minimum 1,067mm (42”) penetration

Active nuclear solidified sediment waste retrieval

The Rotocutter is a remotely operable, hydraulically powered device for macerating, recovering and transferring hazardous compacted sedimentary wastes.

Waste maceration

Rotocutter consists of a hydraulically powered, remotely operated tracked platform. The ROV platform has a mechanical chain macerator that can be deployed accurately to remove compacted and hardened sediment wastes. The chain macerator can be deployed to horizontal surfaces and, to an unlimited extent, also to vertical surfaces.

Vacuum recovery

Macerated dry waste is removed from the operating environment by a bespoke vacuum system, the waste is further size reduced and suspended in water by a patented mechanism before being pumped to further processing.

Anti-caking

Rotocutter has various mechanisms to deal with dust generation, caking of debris and the homogenisation of the waste for fluid handling.

Rapid deployment

Rotocutter is dimensionally compact to allow for deployment into confined spaces. It is powered, controlled and debris is removed for processing using an umbilical. All systems are dedicated, everything is modular.

Umbilical management

Rotocutter can be deployed with a remotely controlled, hydraulically actuated, umbilical management system to mitigate the risk of entanglement by operational environment furniture and features.

Remote control

The Rotocutter system is controlled using multiple radiation hardened cameras, local illumination and a dedicated control system.