All of the fuel transfer machine now at encapsulation plant
It was history in the making, when the last large main component for Posiva’s encapsulation plant, the fuel transfer machine, was lifted in place on Monday and its erection started on Tuesday, 12 March. There had been also some nervousness in the air with the schedule as the last of the three parts of the machine only arrived from France to the port of Hanko on Sunday, just before the start of the transport industry’s strike that would shut down export and import activities for two weeks.
The fuel transfer machine is at place in the encapsulation chamber inside the encapsulation plant.
There is a large number of various systems dependent on the main components and this was the last missing, important link to those components; without it, the systems could not be tested and finalised, explains Veijo Ruotanen who is the Installation Manager in charge of the installation of the main equipment in the encapsulation plant.
According to Ruotanen, the part that has now arrived is the lifting system installed between the rails to lift the assemblies containing spent fuel inside the fuel handling cell.
- It is a crane of a very special type. The other major systems in the handling cell include docking stations for the canister transport cask and the canister itself, the fuel drying station, and the hoist for lifting the transport cask lid, as well as service manipulators.
Wiring of transfer machine takes about three weeks
The wiring of the fuel transfer machine, which will start next at the encapsulation plant, is the most time-consuming installation phase estimated to take some three weeks.
- This means that the machine supplier can test it in early April, first without load and finally with dummy elements which at this point do not yet contain real fuel. After that, we will be able to start our own operator training to Posiva’s employees who will operate the machine in the future, Ruotanen says.
Posiva is at present undergoing an intensive period of concluding the project. Various device operation trainings for operators are already starting at the end of April.
With the help of the transfer machine, fuel assemblies are transferred in the encapsulation chamber from the transfer tank to the drying station and from there to the disposal capsule.
The fuel transfer machine
- The fuel transfer machine is used to transfer fuel assemblies in the handling cell of the encapsulation plant.
- The transfer machine must be able to transfer the fuel assemblies from the transport cask to the drying station and further into the final disposal canister.
- The machine also needs to handle certain protective equipment that have to be opened or installed when fuel is being transferred.
- As a secondary function, the transfer machine facilitates and assists with certain cleaning and maintenance activities inside the fuel handling cell.
- The machine will also need to be able to handle spent fuel from OL3, after undergoing certain inspections, but by then the final disposal of all fuel from LO1&2 and OL1&2 will already have been completed.
Text Pasi Tuohimaa
Photos Tapani Karjanlahti