Robotics Commons^™

Design Concepts And Process Analysis For Transmuter Fuel Manufacturing, Georg F. Mauer

Fuels Campaign (TRP)

The safe and effective manufacturing of actinide-bearing fuels for any transmutation strategy requires that the entire manufacturing process be contained within a shielded hot cell environment. To ensure that the fabrication process is feasible, the entire process must be designed for remote operation. The equipment must be reliable enough to perform over several decades, and also easy to maintain or repair remotely. The facility must also be designed to facilitate its own decontamination and decommissioning. In addition to these design factors, the potential viability of any fuel fabrication process will also be impacted by a number of variables, such as …

Design Concepts And Process Analysis For Transmuter Fuel Manufacturing, Georg F. Mauer

Fuels Campaign (TRP)

The safe and effective manufacturing of actinide-bearing fuels for any transmutation strategy requires that the entire manufacturing process be contained within a shielded hot cell environment. To ensure that the fabrication process is feasible, the entire process must be designed for remote operation. The equipment must be reliable enough to perform over several decades, and also easy to maintain or repair remotely. The facility must also be designed to facilitate its own decontamination and decommissioning. In addition to these design factors, the potential viability of any fuel fabrication process will also be impacted by a number of variables, such as …

Design Concepts And Process Analysis For Transmuter Fuel Manufacturing: Quarterly Progress Report #6, Kamalakar Alluri, Georg F. Mauer

Fuels Campaign (TRP)

Project Milestones

• Completed a systematic study seeking to arrive at an optimized plant configuration, using value engineering techniques in January 2006.

• Vision-based robot serving and automated plant safety monitoring is currently in progress.

Design Concepts And Process Analysis For Transmuter Fuel Manufacturing, Georg F. Mauer

Fuels Campaign (TRP)

The safe and effective manufacturing of actinide-bearing fuels for any transmutation strategy requires that the entire manufacturing process be contained within a shielded hot cell environment. To ensure that the fabrication process is feasible, the entire process must be designed for remote operation. The equipment must be reliable enough to perform over several decades, and also easy to maintain or repair remotely. The facility must also be designed to facilitate its own decontamination and decommissioning. In addition to these design factors, the potential viability of any fuel fabrication process will also be impacted by a number of variables, such as …

Design Concepts And Process Analysis For Transmuter Fuel Manufacturing: Quarterly Progress Report #1, Jamil M. Renno, Georg F. Mauer

Fuels Campaign (TRP)

A Hot Cell robotic assembly: Pick and place dynamic simulation, including feedback control with Matlab, was developed for dispersion fuel manufacture.

The deployment of remote manufacturing of transmuter fuel is a necessity for the transmutation applications. In the reporting period, a virtual hot cell for the manufacturing of dispersion fuel was designed using MSC.visualNastran^©, ProEngineer^© and MATLAB^©. Atypical events were successfully simulated. Relevant physical quantities arising during such events were monitored as well.

Design And Evaluation Of Processes For Fuel Fabrication, Georg F. Mauer

Fuels Campaign (TRP)

The goal of this research project was to provide technical support to process designers working on the development of the fuel cycles for transmutation applications. Detailed process models were developed to better define the impact of fuel choice on the transmuter fuel cycle, including relative process losses, waste generation, and plant capital cost. These process models provide insight regarding required plant size and number of plants needed to mesh with the fuel recycling line. They also determine requirements for automation.

Manufacturing models for large-scale production in a hot cell environment were also developed. Combined, these two models allow the assessment …

Design And Evaluation Of Processes For Fuel Fabrication, Georg F. Mauer

Fuels Campaign (TRP)

The goal of this research project is to provide technical support to process designers working on the development of the fuel cycles for transmutation applications. Detailed process models are developed to better define the impact of fuel choice on the transmuter fuel cycle, including relative process losses, waste generation, and plant capital cost. These process models provide insight regarding required plant size and number of plants needed to mesh with the fuel recycling line. They also determine requirements for automation.

Manufacturing models for large-scale production in a hot cell environment are also developed. Combined, these two models allow the assessment …

Design And Evaluation Of Processes For Transmuter Fuel Fabrication, Georg F. Mauer

Fuels Campaign (TRP)

• Project Objective: examine autonomous robotic fuel fabrication processes with regard to hot cell and equipment design, operations, and costs.

• Fabrication processes for different fuel types differ in terms of equipment types, throughput, and cost.

• Design options are restricted by the requirement to employ only radiation-hardened machinery and components

• Benefit to Department of Energy: decision support for the selection of the most suitable manufacturing process.

Design And Evaluation Of Processes For Fuel Fabrication: Year 1 Final Report, Georg F. Mauer

Fuels Campaign (TRP)

The project objective is the design and evaluation of manufacturing processes for transmuter fuel fabrication. The large-scale deployment of remote fabrication and refabrication processes will be required for all transmutation scenarios. Current program emphasis is on a five-year effort to determine the feasibility of transmutation as a technology to limit the need for repository storage of spent commercial fuel. The evaluation of the fabrication processes will create a decision support data base to document design, operations, and costs. Fabrication processes required for different fuel types differ in terms of equipment types, throughput, and cost. The year 1 project was focused …