Diakont Completes Successful Underwater Robotic Decontamination Services, Demonstrating Effectiveness of New Dose-Saving and Outage-Shortening Technology

CARLSBAD, Calif., July 09, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Diakont, a leading provider of refueling outage tooling and services to the nuclear industry, successfully provided underwater robotic decontamination services at four nuclear power plants in Spring 2019, cleaning refueling cavities, dryer-separator pools, and a suppression pool using underwater robotic decon systems. Historically, nuclear plant operators have conducted cleaning and decontamination of these surfaces manually, after draining water from the space. However, manual decon is slow and can result in excessive personnel dose exposure.

Diakont's underwater robotic decon services present a vast improvement over manual decon because it reduces personnel dose exposure, reduces radwaste, does not impact plant chemistry, and does not risk inadvertently spreading contamination. Also, Diakont's innovative decon method avoids the risk of personnel injury and component damage associated with hydrolasing. Additionally, in many cases, performing the decon robotically while the cavities are flooded shortens the critical path outage duration by up to four hours.

Able to decontaminate horizontal, vertical, and curved surfaces, Diakont's ROV-type decontamination tool easily navigate to areas within flooded cavities that are inaccessible to previous solutions, performing decon in parallel to other activities, including fuel movement. This tool attaches and drives along the cavity and component surfaces using a high-force, no-flow vortex generator, even in the presence of strong flow from Residual Heat Removal (RHR) or shutdown cooling. Efficient, effective cleaning is performed using a rugged brushing action that detaches the crud, while vacuuming it away using strong suction into the plant's existing filtration system.

At the Spring 2019 refueling outages, Diakont's decontamination services were so effective that the post drain-down decon work for the plants was significantly less than in the past, thus reducing time on critical path and helping the utilities meet their radiation exposure goals. Using the tool's ability to swim, attach, and crawl, Diakont decontaminated the majority of the surfaces designated by the plant operator.

"Diakont's remote underwater decontamination service helped the plant operators meet their INPO and Industry collective radiation exposure goals," says Jacco Goemans, Director of Nuclear Solutions for Diakont. "Diakont's new robotic tooling paves the way for plant operators to perform a safer, more efficient, and more effective method of reactor plant decontamination and cleaning."

About Diakont

Diakont is a leading designer, manufacturer, and supplier of high-technology products and services for the nuclear power industry; providing radiation-tolerant cameras and robotics, as well as inspection, maintenance, and repair services for plants of all designs. With a mission of enhancing safety while improving the overall efficiency of the nuclear industry, Diakont has been deploying state-of-the-art robotics and world-class service to solve inspection and repair challenges for over 25 years.

SOURCE Diakont Advanced Technologies