V17 • I01 • JANUARY 2022
Canadian Nuclear Laboratories
VOYAGEUR
A ‘GAMECHANGER’ FOR THE INDUSTRY Brainchild of CNL employees is the safest, most efficient to clean up waste It weighs 1.4 million pounds – or 635,000 kilograms – and will take more than 150 trucks to ship to the Whiteshell site. When it arrives and is assembled, this gargantuan equipment will be the safest and most efficient way to clean up radioactive and other hazardous waste now in temporary storage. It is called the Standpipes and Bunker Waste Retrieval System. David Gilson, CNL’s Whiteshell site Senior Manager for Waste Management Area Demolition and Decommissioning, considers it a ground-breaking invention. “This is going to be a gamechanger not just for Canada, but for other countries with nuclear programs,” Gilson said. “For us to show you can do this type of work remotely will be significant for the industry.” The system is the brainchild of CNL employees who were trying to figure out the best method to remediate intermediate-level radioactive waste while protecting employees. CNL’s specific challenge was to develop a plan to remediate 171 in-ground concrete standpipes (vertical in-ground waste storage structures) and seven in-ground concrete bunkers – while making sure the people doing the work were as safe as possible. That means breaking open the concrete standpipes and bunkers, retrieving the material inside, then identifying, cataloguing, sorting, packaging and preparing it for transport to CNL’s Chalk River site for continued safe management. As a result of the radioactive hazards and other contaminants, the solution was to use remotely operated equipment as part of a first of a kind system using commercially available parts and components and some specifically designed parts assembled in a unique configuration. Part of this solution, the Bunker Waste Retrieval System, will sit over one bunker at a time and using remotely operated excavator arms, remove the roof, extract materials, and deliver them for processing. Once the bunker is cleared of materials and decontaminated, the system will then be moved to the next bunker using a series of selfpropelled modular transporters situated underneath the building. The second part, the Standpipe Waste Retrieval System, will sit over two standpipes at the same time, pulverize the concrete caps into rubble, extract the materials and then deliver the waste for processing. A crane will then lift and move it along to the next two standpipes. The heart of the system is the Sorting and Conditioning Unit which
MODEL OF THE STAND PIPE WASTE REMOVAL SYSTEM
will receive the packaged waste materials from both the bunkers and standpipes. It contains two pairs of remotely operated manipulator arms that will open, segregate, analyze, sort, and package the waste into shielded canisters for safe transport. Everything is directed from a control room that is an entire football field away. David Gilson says keeping workers at a safe distance is key to this unique system. “You don’t have to put someone right on top of the bunker or the standpipe to retrieve the waste,” Gilson said. “You can do this remotely and remove any danger to people and the environment that this process could present.” The components of the system are now under construction in the Greater Toronto Area and Cambridge, Ontario. They are due to be transported to Whiteshell in late 2022 and reassembled. It is estimated it will take six months to empty and process each of the seven bunkers and a week for each of the 171 standpipes, putting the total time to clear both at forty-two months. The Standpipes and Bunker Waste Retrieval System showcases the ingenuity of CNL engineers and technicians, who have successfully invented a new way to keep workers safe and to efficiently handle a complex and enormous remediation project. And there is an added bonus: the people who are now being recruited to work with the system will have unique experience in waste management, decommissioning and remediation.