Sharing Experiences within AREVA D and D Project Portfolio: Four Illustrations - 13049
Over the past ten years, AREVA has performed D and D operations on a wide range of nuclear sites, such as Marcoule and La Hague recycling plants, to Cadarache MOX fuel fabrication plant or Veurey and Annecy metallic Uranium machining plants. Each site is different from the other but some lessons can be shared through this D and D portfolio. In that respect, knowledge management is one of AREVA D and D Technical Department main missions. Four illustrations demonstrate the interest of knowledge share. Waste management is one of the key activities in D and D; It requires a specific characterization methodology, adapted logistics, and optimized waste channels, all of which have been developed over the years by AREVA teams on the site of Marcoule while they are rather new to La Hague, whose main activity remains fuel reprocessing despite the launch of UP2 400 D and D program. The transfer of know how has thus been organized over the past two years. Plasma cutting has been used extensively in Marcoule for years, while prohibited on the site of La Hague following questions raised about the risks associated wit Ruthenium sublimation. La Hague Technical Department has thus developed an experimental protocol to quantify and contain the Ruthenium risk, the result of which will then be applied to Marcoule where the Ruthenium issue has appeared in recent operations. Commissioning and operating fission products evaporators is a rather standard activity on UP2 800 and UP3, while the associated experience has been decreasing in Marcoule following final shutdown in 1998. When the French atomic Energy commission decided to build and operate a new evaporator to concentrate rinsing effluents prior to vitrification in 2009, AREVA La Hague operators were mobilized to test and commission the new equipment, and train local operators. Concrete scabbling is the final stage prior to the free release of a nuclear facility. In the context of Veurey and Annecy final cleanup and declassification, large scale concrete scabbling operations were conducted, and lead to the industrialization of the process and qualification of a new process, NiThrow{sup TM} scabbling technology, developed by AREVA. This experience has now been injected into La Hague D and D scenario and has allowed a significant gain in time and cost for scabbling operations. In short, the variety of experiences and sites under the responsibility of AREVA D and D teams present significant challenges, and yet provide a unique opportunity to innovate and qualify new tools and methods which can then be shared throughout the sites. (authors)