Dismantling of a radioactive building - 13146

Blastrac is a European company specialised in surface preparation. Aware of the new stakes such as the maintenance of existing nuclear plants or their dismantling, we developed a range of products for these applications. Thanks to the REX (dismantling of the nuclear reactor at Brennilis, scarifying of a SICN building at Annecy,...) and our ambition to offer rational solutions dust free and with low vibrations, Blastrac has an expertise in this area. Remote controlled machines for a better security of the operator Systems with a direct recovery of the dust into big bags or into barrels Buildings renovation by scarifying, grinding or shot blasting with a low additional waste generated and without any water used. Steel tank shot blasting All these solutions are designed to reduce at the lower level dust in the working environment and to improve the operators working conditions. We can notice as an example the renovation of the SICN job-site at Annecy. The purpose was to remove between 2 and 30 mm of contaminated concrete in one of the buildings. This renovation had been done by a scarifying machine BMP 335EHY tooled up with a drum complete with cutters with a low level of vibrations and dust made. Our customer explained us a problem he had in this job-site. Several options had been tested but not conclusive for the same application but in a wall and in a roof. Thanks to the experience we have in this area, we thought about a way to adapt to walls and roofs a machine conceived at the beginning for floors. After some research and feasibility studies, we decided to put a scarifying head in a remote controlled mechanical arm. This solutions was profitable for several reasons: The operator is not physically in the contaminated area which limit his exposure and maximize his safety Remote controlled which makes the machine very effective and ergonomic to operate It improves the productivity and the efficiency After some tests, we developed with the company ATC BROKK a new machine which can solve in an efficient way the wall and roof scarifying problems. Blastrac also have an expertise in dust collection systems. In the past, the dust generated by scarification was collected in a tray. After that, the tray had to be emptied on an impervious barrel for a safety storage. These steps done by an operator were risky as he was exposed to the dust and a problem could have occurred during the handling. These two points made us reflect about the management of the contaminated waste to reduce the danger. From this noticing, we completely changed our process in order to reduce the human risk. We designed a new dust collector able to draw up the removed epoxy and automatically house it without any handling by an operator. That was an opportunity to reduce the risk and to have a safe, dust free and perfectly clean job-site.