A Supporting Tool for Nuclear Decommissioning Work - 21186

At nuclear facilities, most decommissioning work in areas where operators are likely to be exposed to radiation is performed by wearing the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). The work conditions with PPE are very severe due to wearing the protection suit resulting in rise in body temperature, and wearing the mask resulting in the narrow field of view and slight uneasiness when breathing. In addition to these, wearing the gloves makes it a little difficult to handle objects well. In PPE, it is not easy for the operators to use a device such as a telephone to communicate with other personnel. Furthermore, in many occasions, the operators are asked to refrain from bringing paper documents into a work site at the nuclear facility. Thus, it is not rare for the operators to endure inconvenience caused by the lack of necessary documents during onsite work such as investigation and device/equipment inspection. As a tool to assist operators in performing decommissioning work safely and efficiently in such a harsh environment, IHI Corporation (IHI) has developed the Work Support System. A tablet (touch screen) is supplied to each operator or work site and the system remotely provides relevant information from the cloud for the work intended. Work procedures and their 3D simulation images or videos can be shown on the screen for the better understanding of each work step. Also, relevant information such as drawings and device data sheets, required for the work can be checked onsite easily. Since this system helps the operators make sure that they check and understand the work procedures again, and receive required information about the work when necessary, the operators can complete the work more safely, accurately and efficiently. Information such as pictures, videos, measurement records can be input via the tablet, recorded in the cloud, and shared among relevant personnel at other sites/offices in different locations in real time. In such ways, the system allows the operators to receive instructions faster and more accurately and contributes to the improvement of communication among the relevant personnel during the work. This is also an effective measure to prevent a loss of measurement records and a leak of information. For the better user friendliness, the system is planned to be improved by continuously incorporating lessons learned from the actual use at work sites. This paper is to introduce details and examples of the application of the Work Support System assisting the decommissioning work described above. (authors)