Bruce Power major component replacement automated inspection and Calandria tube install innovation

Bruce Power is undergoing a Major Component Replacement (MCR) Project on 6 of its 8 reactors, with Unit 6 being the first reactor to be refurbished followed by Units 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8. Unit 6 MCR is approaching completion and Unit 3 MCR is scheduled to start in March of 2023. The MCR project involves replacing and updating critical reactor components which include replacement of 960 Primary Heat Transport (PHT) feeders and associated feeder components, along with all 480 fuel channel assemblies and Calandria Tubes (CT). For Unit 3 MCR and future MCRs Bruce Power has opted to implement innovations to improve the efficiency of CANDU reactor refurbishments. One such innovation is utilizing automated tooling to perform automated inspection and installation of calandria tubes (this project refers to these tooling as "Auto Inspect and Auto CT Install"). This Auto Inspect and CT Install innovation is achieved by utilizing an Automated Delivery Table (ADT) which uses servo lane drives to deliver reactor tooling in and out of channel without human intervention. In addition, a 6 axis-robot will be added to the table to deploy current hand deployed tools. Tooling operations which are currently manual will also be automated eliminating the need for workers to operate tooling. The goal of the innovation is to have minimal human interaction on face when inspecting lattice sites and installing CTs. Ultimately improving quality, reducing outage duration, reducing dose, and reducing cost but eliminating HU related errors and inefficiencies. (author)