Dismantling design for the loop rooms on the MR reactor Original Research Article

The recently completed international co-operation project was aimed at planning for decommissioning the MR reactor identified as a pilot plant for the decommissioning of the other shutdown reactors on the site. The MR reactor was a pool-type, materials testing reactor with the total thermal power of 50 MW which incorporated pressure tubes containing fuel under test. The MR facility includes the reactor with its nine loop rig rooms containing pumps, heat exchangers and experimental equipment as well as systems and equipment located in other buildings in the complex. The objective of the MR reactor decommissioning project was to identify dismantling equipment and the decommissioning methodology for the reactor, loop rooms and redundant services to permit the refit and re-use of the building for a different nuclear related purpose. The dismantling design comprises two separate, but combined, tasks, namely, the dismantling of reactor installation itself and dismantling of experimental loops. The techniques proposed to undertake the dismantling operations within the loop rooms are described. Two options have been developed for removing contaminated equipment from the high radiation field loop rooms and packaging the waste into approved waste containers. The benefits and detriments of both methods have been identified, which allows implementing the safe, timely and cost-effective decommissioning.