EPJ Nuclear Sci. Technol. 8, 20 (2022)
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjn/2022016

Regular Article

ROBBE – Robot-aided processing of assemblies during the dismantling of nuclear power plants

¹ Fraunhofer IGD, Fraunhoferstr. 5, 64283 Darmstadt, Germany
² RWE Nuclear GmbH, RWE Platz 2, 45141 Essen, Germany
³ TSE-Wassmann, Wilhelm-Brökelmann-Str. 2b, 58675 Hemer, Germany
⁴ Graz University of Technology, Inffeldgasse 16c, 8010 Graz, Austria
⁵ TU Darmstadt, Fraunhoferstr. 5, 64283 Darmstadt, Germany

^* e-mail: pedro.santos@igd.fraunhofer.de, joerg.recknagel@kkw.rwe.com

Received: 13 May 2022
Accepted: 20 July 2022
Published online: 23 September 2022

Abstract

For a successful decommissioning and dismantling of an NPP (Nuclear Power Plant), correct and controlled processing of all components is necessary, whereby a large part of the work relates to coated (mainly painted) steel components, which make up a significant proportion of the total inventory of the power plant to be processed. The contamination of these components is reduced by removing the surface coating using UHP (Ultra-High-Pressure) water jet blasting technology. Thus, the decontaminated material is released to be recycled conventionally after receiving clearance in accordance with Chap. 3 StrlSchV (German Federal Law Gazette 2018 No. 41: StrlSchV, 2018). The manual processing of these individual parts is cost-intensive, so that an autonomous, automated solution is more economical while increasing throughput at repeatable high quality. ROBBE aims at implementing a robot-assisted, automated and autonomous decoating procedure of component groups using UHP water jet blasting technology and implements it ata German NPP in Biblis on an industrial, productive scale.