INEEL software The Winter 1998 issue of Initiatives gave an overview of the Integrated Decontamination and Decommissioning Project, funded through the Office of Science and Technology's Accelerated Site Technology Deployment (ASTD) program. This joint effort of Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL), Fernald Environmental Management Project, and Argonne National Laboratory–East is demonstrating seven technologies to raise their visibility and hasten their broader deployment. This article provides further detail about one of those technologies. Cleaning up the DOE weapons complex will require disassembling an immense amount of contaminated machinery and razing hundreds of buildings. Hundreds of thousands of tons of contaminated waste will have to be packed in containers for transport and disposal. Improving the efficiency of these processes could deliver substantial savings in both time and storage requirements. Engineers and programmers at INEEL have built on commercially available engineering design software to develop a system that optimizes cutting operations and waste container packing. Through the ASTD program's Integrated Decontamination and Decommissioning project, the Decontamination, Decommissioning, and Remediation Optimization Planning System (DDROPS) is being tested in the decommissioning of INEEL's Central Facility Area Sewage Treatment Plant. The plant (CFA-691) includes a small reinforced-concrete building with a basement extending nearly 12 feet underground. In addition to potentially contaminated water and sludge, the basement contains pumps and piping that must be cut up and removed. INEEL scientists realized that new simulation-based computer technology being used to optimize ship and airplane design could also be applied to D&D processes. At DDROPS' core is Parametric Technology Corporation's Pro/ENGINEER®, product development software that incorporates computer-assisted engineering and design. The system incorporates smart databases, proprietary code and algorithms, geometry preprocessors, and robotic path planners. The process begins with creating a three-dimensional model of the equipment or building to be disassembled. Specifications can be input by hand or from existing computer-aided design files, blueprints, as-built drawings, photographs, laser scans, and photogrammetry. Once generated, the model can serve a variety of purposes. At CFA-691, for instance, with minimal exposure of personnel to hazard, DDROPS quickly identified discrepancies between as-built drawings and the current configuration. As a result, D&D operators can more safely familiarize themselves with facility interiors by viewing three-dimensional models generated by DDROPS and color-coded to indicate radiation levels. Then by running a series of algorithms, operators can determine optimal locations for cuts based on selected constraints: number of cuts, number and dimensions of disposal containers, packaging densities, and worker exposure. DDROPS recommends a packing strategy for each container and records not only its contents but also origins, contamination levels, locations within the container, and ultimate disposition. Actual disassembly of CFA-691 was performed manually, providing a baseline for comparison against DDROPS simulations. The results show that DDROPS delivers a number of benefits over baseline manual techniques:
INEEL plans to use DDROPS again later this year in the disassembly of two small test reactors currently held in a fuel storage pool. Developers believe the technology has commercial potential for the power generation industry as well as the DOE complex. For more information about DDROPS, contact Dick Meservey, INEEL, (208) 526-1834. |
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