French Navy – CEA, France
Unloading of the container, handling of the steam generator by the mobile crane
Background
The French Navy needed to retrieve and treat a contaminated steam generator (SG) of 4m high and representing more than 40 tonnes of metal waste.
Challenge
Because of the uncommon size and weight of the SG for Cyclife France industrial site, CENTRACO, the team had to:
- Get a dedicated authorisation from ASN (Nuclear Safety Authority) to open a new waste route
- Design tailor-made equipment to transport and support the SG into the cold cutting facility: a container that can host an ISO 20” container (as picture 1) and motorised low-bed trolleys
- Create an alternative scenario to transport, receive, treat and store this waste
- Lower storage cost by waste size reduction
The motorised low-bed trolleys designed to transport and support SG.
Our proposal
Key milestones
- ASN authorisation in March 2022
- Treatment from March to May 2022
Key technical data
- Level of radioactivity about 30 GBq, equal to about 750 Bq/g
Process
- Engineering studies to design and manufacture a tailor-made container and a motorised low-bed trolleys
- Two cutting phases: 1/Roughly cut in a dedicated workshop 2/Cut into smaller pieces adapted for the induction furnace
- Metallic pieces melted at 1,600°C to be tipped into a ladle and emptied into ingot moulds
Customer benefits
- Saving space at customer site
- Turn-key solution from retrieval to final storage
- Storage cost reduced
Results
- New waste route opened for large component
- Waste volume reduction for storage by 1/6
- A three-month process from the treatment to final storage on the behalf of the customer
Learn more
-
Cyclife’s factsheetPDF - 1.02 MB
Learn more on the management of contaminated large component at Cyclife