The clean-up and decontamination of the hot cells will be performed in the
second phase of the WWR-S research reactor decommissioning. Identification of
possible incidents or accidents is the key element in radiological assessment
and prevention. As major incident it was considered a fire burst that
occurred during the progress of the clean-up operations. The postulated
incident has, as a consequence, thick smoke generation from the burned
radioactive material and the dispersion of this material in the environment
through the technological ventilation system and the evacuation chimney. From
the performed analysis it can be seen that in the case of an incident to the
reactor hot cells, an operator engaged in intervention operations could take
an effective dose of 5.29 Sv per event, coming from both external and
internal exposure. Such an incident, if it happens, would be classified of
level 3 on the INES scale.
Starting with 2010 and until 2020, the VVR-S nuclear research reactor from Magurele, Romania, is in the decommissioning process. The reactor aluminum assembly contains the internal vessel which represent the main component of the reactor. In order to identify the optimum technological methods of dismantling and cutting, the initial radiological characterization of the reactor vessel was conducted. Modern methods like plasma jet, diamond wire cutting, shredding with a Brokk 160 demolition robot were used in this process. Safety aspects for optimizing radiation protection of operating personnel were analyzed and innovative solutions were identified. The lessons learned from the reactor vessels dismantling were presented.
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