Remotely Operated Decontamination Systems for Use in DFDF

This paper presents the development of the remotely operated decontamination systems for use in a highly radioactive zone of the DUPIC Fuel Development facility of the Irradiated Material Examination Facility at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute. The remotely operated decontamination systems were designed to completely eliminate human interaction with hazardous radioactive contaminants. These decontamination systems are mainly classified into three systems depending on the task environment - a fabrication equipment decontamination system, a hot-cell floor decontamination system, and an isolation room floor decontamination system. A decontamination system for contaminated fabrication equipment utilizes dry ice pellet blasting method to decontaminate contaminated surface of the equipment. The decontamination systems for the hot-cell floor and isolation room floor employ a vacuum cleaning method to decontaminate the contaminated floor and collect loose dry spent nuclear fuel debris and other radioactive waste placed on the floor. The human operator from the out-of-cell performs a series of decontamination tasks remotely by manipulating decontamination systems located in-cell via a handcontroller with the aid of vision feedback information. The environmental, functional and mechanical design considerations, control system and capabilities of the remotely operated decontamination systems at a high radioactive environment are also described.