Development of Special Tools for the Cleaning of Reactor's Interior in HANARO

Abstract

The HANARO (Hi-flux Advanced Neutron Application Reactor) in Korea has been being operated for 5 years, including one year of non-nuclear system commissioning tests since the installation of the reactor in early 1994. The HANARO is an open-tank-in-pool type reactor which has the advantage of free access from the pool top. The HANARO reactor had special cleaning works twice to remove debris from the inside reactor. This paper summarizes the development of special tools for reactor cleaning and how the reactor's inside had been successfully cleaned within short periods. The first cleaning work, after the initial flushing of the reactor system in early 1994, was the removal of the silica-gel sands, contaminated during installation, from the reactor pool and all equipment in the pool, including the reactor structure, the reactivity control units and the primary cooling system. Water-jet, pump suction, vacuum suction and whirl methods were used in combination with specially designed tools. The second one, occurred in February 1997 after two years of reactor operation was the cleaning work for the reactor's interior to remove several metal pieces broken from the parts of a check valve assembly in the primary cooling system. This work required development of many special tools that are all compact in size and remotely operable to reach all areas of the inlet plenum through very limited access holes. The special tools used for this work were two kinds of underwater cameras equipped with lighting, a debris-picking tool named 'revolving dustpan', two kinds of flow tube replacement tools and many other supplementary tools. All work had been successfully accomplished on the in-pool-platform temporarily installed 9m above the pool bottom to maintain the pool water level required in view of radiation shielding. Finally, the reactor internals were inspected using the underwater cameras to confirm the absence of debris and the surface integrity of the plenum as well as all fuel channels.