Abstract
On the Sellafield site there are several legacy storage tanks and silos containing sludge of uncertain properties. While there are efforts to determine the chemical and radiological properties of the sludge, to clean out and decommission these vessels, the physical properties need to be ascertained as well. Shear behaviour, density and temperature are the key parameters to be understood before decommissioning activities commence. However, limited access, the congested nature of the tanks and presence of radioactive, hazardous substances severely limit sampling and usage of sophisticated characterisation devices within these tanks and therefore, these properties remain uncertain. This paper describes the development of a cheap, compact, and robust device to analyse the rheological properties of sludge, without the need to extract materials from the site in order to be analysed. Analysis of a sludge test material has been performed to create a suitable benchmark material for the rheological measurements with the prototype. Development of the device is being undertaken with commercial off the shelf (COTS) components and modern rapid prototyping techniques. Using these techniques, an initial prototype for measuring shear parameters of sludge has been developed, using a micro-controller for remote control and data gathering. The device is also compact enough to fit through a 75 mm opening, maximising deployment capabilities.
Highlights
The landscape of the nuclear industry is changing nuclear power plants, and as reprocessing facilities approach the end of their planned lifespan, decommissioning has become a new focal point for the nuclear industry
This paper has described the development of a relatively compact and robust device to analyse the rheological properties of sludge without the need to sample materials
The results presented in this paper show the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed mechanism and measurement geometries to obtain shear behaviour data of suspensions
Summary
The landscape of the nuclear industry is changing nuclear power plants, and as reprocessing facilities approach the end of their planned lifespan, decommissioning has become a new focal point for the nuclear industry. This is reflected in academic research as well, with research moving from reprocessing operations to decommissioning [1]. Using the Sellafield site as an example, there are a number of legacy tanks, silos and other containers with nuclear waste, often in the form of suspension, that will need to be cleaned out as part of the decommissioning plans. In situ characterisation is, one of the key aspects of nuclear decommissioning [4]
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