Seamless remote dismantling system for heavy and highly radioactive components of Korean nuclear power plants

A seamless remote system for dismantling heavy and highly radioactive components during the decommissioning of a nuclear power plant is proposed. The originality of the dismantling system is in its ability to handle all the processes involved in the dismantling of major components of a nuclear power plant without external intervention. Previous types of dismantling equipment were designed for specific components or a particular process, which required time consuming and risky equipment replacement tasks between different processes. The proposed dismantling system was designed and verified by simulation of all the processes for dismantling the major components of a Korean nuclear power plant. Several challenges such as working in confined spaces and with complex movement lines as well as interference between components were overcome. The proposed system is capable of handling all the dismantling processes without equipment replacement tasks or the need to drain the reactor pool. The system is expected to considerably reduce the time and cost of the entire decommissioning process while also improving safety.