A Study of an Intelligent FME System for SFCR Tools

Abstract

In the nuclear field, the accurate identification, tracking and history documentation of every nuclear tool, equipment or component is a key to safety, operational excellence, perfect maintenance and security of the nuclear reactor.This paper offers a study of the possible development of the present Foreign Material Exclusion (FME) system using an Intelligent Nuclear Tools Identification System, or INTI System, that was created and customized for the Single Fuel Channel Replacement (SFCR) Tools. The conceptual design of the INTI was presented comparing the current and the proposed systems in terms of the time, the cost and the radiation doses received by the employees during the SFCR maintenance jobs. A model was created to help better understand and analyze the effects of deployment of the INTI system on the time, performance, accuracy, received dose and finally the total cost. The model may be also extended to solve other nuclear applications problems.The INCI system is based on RFID Smart Tags which are networked with readers and service computers. The System software was designed to communicate with the different hardwares network to provide the coordinate information for any component at any time. It also allows digital signatures for use and/or approval to use the components and automatically updates their DBMS history in terms of the person performing the job, the time period and date of use. This feature together with the information of parts life span could be used in the planning process for the predictive and preventive maintenance.As a case study, the model was applied to a pilot project for SFCR Tools FME. The INTI system automatically records all the tools to be used inside the vault and make real time tracking of any misplaced tool. It also automatically performs a continuous check of all tools, sending an alarm if any of the tools was left inside the vault after the job is done. Finally, a discussion of the results of the system feasibility was performed and further INTI applications were suggested.