The 12th International Conference on Environmental ... - Events

Abstracts Session 17
3) DESIGN OF PYROPROCESS DIGITAL MOCKUP AND WORKSPACE ANALYSIS OF DEVICES - 16140
Hee Seoung Park, Chang-Hwan Choi, Sung-Hyun Kim, Byung-Seok Park, Ki-Ho Kim,
Ho-Dong Kim, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (Korea)
Pyroprocessing is an alternative technology that entails certain advantages in regard to reduce the quantity of the disposable
spent fuel and to realize a more efficient and effective spent fuel management. <strong>The</strong> Korea Atomic Energy Research
Institute(KAERI) has been carried out various types of experiments in order to demonstrate pyroprocessing which can achieve a
more efficient and effective spent fuel management at the Advanced spent fuel Conditioning Process Facility(ACPF). Pyroprocessing
which can deal with a spent fuel requires a high manipulator skillfulness of a human operator. A remote manipulation environment
that a human operator has to observe is the inner side of a hotcell through a lead grass window which has many obstacles due
to many existing ‘blind-spots’ where are several cameras installed. <strong>The</strong> lack of visual information when operating in a cluttered
environment makes manoeuvering a manipulator very difficult and when this situation is exacerbated by strict time limits for a task
completion, then a manipulator and environmental collisions and resultant damage can occur. This article introduces a system that
can model nuclear facilities and devices with a low cost and can simulate a deployment analysis, a remote accessibility, and a
remote interchangeability effectively and proposes a scheme to enable an operator to improve a remote manipulation by using a
haptic device. For implementing a system which is composed of various modules, we have been built a new Graphic User Interface(GUI)
which enables a user to access the system easily and to obtain results concisely. In order for a virtual manipulator to
access the devices in a virtual environment, we describe the mathematical background in relation to the forward and inverse kinematics.
To establish if a virtual manipulator can be processed normally with a remote accessibility and operability, a case study for
interface between a human operator and the haptic device was carried out. This paper describes an experiment for the deployment
analysis of the MSM, which has five revolute joints and one prismatic joint with joint limitations by referring to a manipulator
workspace boundary generation algorithm.
4) DESIGNING A NEW HIGHLY ACTIVE LIQUOR EVAPORATOR - 16075
Paul Robson, Emma Candy, Sellafield Limited, Seascale, Cumbria,United Kingdom
<strong>The</strong> Highly Active Liquid Effluent Storage (HALES) plant stores, concentrates and conditions Highly Active Liquor (HAL) in
evaporators for buffer storage in Highly Active Storage Tanks (HAST). Highly Active (HA) evaporators play a pivotal role in the
delivery of reprocessing, historic clean up and hazard reduction missions across the Sellafield site. In addition to the engineering
projects implemented to extend the life expectation of the current evaporator fleet, the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Agency
(NDA) is sponsoring the construction of a new HA evaporator (Evaporator D) on the Sellafield site.
<strong>The</strong> design and operation of the new HA evaporator is based on existing/recent HA evaporator technology but learning from
past operational experience. Operational experience has been a key area where the existing plant operators have influenced both
the new design itself and the requirements for commissioning and training. Many of the learning experiences require relatively simple
engineering design modifications such as a new internal washing provision and transfer line blockage recovery systems, they
are never-the-less expected to significantly improve the flexibility and operational capability of the new evaporator.
Issues that the project delivery team has addressed as part of the development of the design and construction have included:
• Minimising interruptions and/or changes to the normal operations of interfacing plants during construction, commissioning
and operation of the new facility.
• Modularisation of the plant, enabling fabrication of the majority of the plant equipment off-site within a workshop (as
opposed to on-site) environment improving Quality Assurance and reducing on-Site testing needs
• Drawing out the balance between operational and corrosion resistance improvements with actual design and delivery needs
• Provision of a new facility reliant on the infrastructure of an existing and ageing facility and the competing demands of
the related safety cases
5) THE HYDROLYSIS OF HYDROXAMIC ACID COMPLEXANTS
IN THE PRESENCE OF NON-OXIDIZING METAL IONS - 16230
Fabrice Andrieux, University of Central Lancashire (UK); Colin Boxall, Lancaster University (UK);
Iain May, Los Alamos National laboratory (UK); Robin J Taylor, National Nuclear Laboratory (UK)
Hydroxamic acids are salt free, organic compounds with affinities for cations such as Fe3+ , Np4+ and Pu4+ , and have been identified
as suitable reagents for the control of Pu and Np in advanced nuclear fuel reprocessing. Acid catalyzed hydrolysis of free
XHAs is well known and may impact negatively on reprocessing applications. <strong>The</strong> hydrolysis of metal-bound XHAs within metal
ion-XHA complexes is less understood.
With the aid of speciation diagrams, we have modelled UV-visible spectrophotometric kinetic studies of the acid-catalyzed
hydrolysis of acetohydroxamic acid (AHA) bound to the model ion Fe(III). <strong>The</strong>se studies have yielded the following information
for the hydrolysis of AHA in the Fe(AHA)2+ complex at 293 K: (i) the order with respect to [H+] during the rate determining step,
m=0.97, is the same as for the free ligand, indicating a similarity of mechanisms; and (ii) the kinetic rate parameter, k1=1.02×10?4
dm3?mol?1?s?1, is greater than that for the free ligand, a result that is consistent with a Hammett analysis of the system.
<strong>The</strong> results of a UV-visible, near-IR spectrophotometric study of the 1:1 and 2:1 complexes formed between formo- and acetohydroxamic
acids (FHA, AHA) and Np(IV) ions are interpreted using speciation diagrams and the previously obtained kinetic
model. Consequently, the complexation constant for formation of the 1:1 Np(IV)-FHA complex in nitric acid is estimated at and
indications are that complexation protects the ligand against hydrolysis.
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