Reactor Area Bridge Fast Acting Platforms

Abstract

In this rapidly developing industry, constantly employing the best tools to perform a function can pose a challenge. An innovative culture to develop safer more efficient systems can make existing products obsolete. This can be termed ‘Proactive Obsolescence’ and was incorporated by Bruce Power for maintenance access to the reactor area bridge. Reactor bridge maintenance requires a dedicated team of professionals to ensure safe, efficient work execution. Scaffolding is a necessary function yet it introduces risks such as foreign material exclusion of assembly hardware and tooling, working at heights on a temporary structure and radiation exposure for the scaffolders. Bruce Power personnel saw the need to improve this and partnered up with Unified Engineering to design and build a mobile platform to eliminate the need for scaffolding. Bruce Power’s Human Factors and Operations / Engineering departments continuously monitored the design of the project to ensure the best possible platform system. The scope was to design a platform with the following considerations:

• In its compacted state must be able to pass through the airlock
• Be deployed without any tooling, hardware and electrical powered motors/drives
• Be able to be lifted in place by an overhead crane
• Be deployed with 2 person crew in 1.5 hour time fram
• Have a coverage area of 16 feet by 10 feet (filling in the recesses in the bridge pit where accessibility is required)
• Design based on Human Factors guidelines

The result was a foldable platform system that increased safety by reducing exposure times by 90 hours (a factor of 10x less dose), removed the foreign material exclusion and the working at heights issues as well as reduced bridge maintenance and deployment time. This project is an example of ‘Proactive Obsolescence’ and on how innovative thinking and partnering resulted in removing the problem altogether.