Remote maintenance for a new generation of hot cells

For several years the Consolidated Fuel Reprocessing Program (CFRP) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has been developing facility concepts, designing specialized equipment, and testing prototypical hardware for reprocessing spent fuel from fast breeder reactors. The major facility conceptual design, the Hot Experimental Facility, was based on total remote maintenance to increase plant availability and to reduce radiation exposure. This thrust included designing modular equipment to facilitate maintenance and the manipulation necessary to accomplish maintenance. Included in the design repetoire was the development effort in advanced servomanipulator systems, a remote sampling system, television viewing, and a transporter for manipulator positioning. Demonstration of these developed items is currently ongoing, and the technology is available for applications where production operations in highly radioactive environments are required