December 05 A glass enclosure has taken shape

Sometimes, one must build up in order to dismantle. This is certainly the case with research reactor DR 3.

FFollowing the removal of the external systems, the DR 3 project team is currently engaged in decommissioning the reactor block itself – a square concrete tower, 6 x 6 meters wide and 10.5 meters high, containing an aluminum tank. In 2014, the reactor's plug and its surrounding ring were extracted, and since then, the tank has been secured by a movable lid designed to slide open on rails.

In the autumn of 2015, the reactor's top was equipped with a new structure made of clear acrylic: two airtight, connected chambers mounted above the movable lid. This housing will be utilized in the next major step of the decommissioning process – to cut open the aluminum tank from within and remove the small pieces one by one.

One chamber is referred to as the manipulator housing and contains a remote-controlled hydraulic arm. The arm can be guided down through hatches in the movable lid and can be fitted with various tools for cutting open the tank.

The second chamber is the so-called packing room, where a crane can lift pieces of the tank weighing up to 400 kg and place them in a container. Once the container is filled and sealed, the packing room can be opened, and the container transported directly to the temporary storage facility on the Risø site.

The manipulator housing and packing room were custom-fabricated by Bladt Industries in Aalborg, who also manufactured the movable lid. The remote control of these elements is thus integrated – the manipulator arm, crane, and movable lid can all be operated via a single hydraulic station in the control room.

The facility now awaits regulatory approval, after which the tank can be transformed into small pieces of radioactive waste.