Operations: equipment servicing and interim storage

The provision of enclosed premises

Depending on the specifications, particular equipment owners or maintenance teams may be the only people capable of acting on their equipment.

SOMANU can respond to this requirement with a &uot;controlled area for the performance of expert work under working conditions:

• which respect the safety rules for the protection of different hazards,
• voluntary radiation protection code, in order to limit the exposure of workers to ionizing radiation to the lowest possible levels.

Equipment maintenance

SOMANU has significant resources for interim storage, decontamination, machining, repairs and dismantling of contaminated components from across the globe.

The site facilities include a &uot;controlled area&uot; workshop known as a &uot;hot workshop&uot;) covering 4000m&up2;, fitted with a full range of machining units, milling machines, boring mills, vertical and horizontal lathes) as well as balancing and welding units.

The workshop mainly serves for machining operations, testing components and equipment tests for the maintenance of power plants.

The main components are:

• Coolant pumps.
• Motors.
• Control rod drive mechanisms.
• Valves and mechanical equipment.
• Auxiliary pumps.
• Fuel containers.
• Piping and heat exchangers.

Equipment and tools interim storage

The building has a surface area of 3000m&up2;, providing for temporary storage:

• for conditioned equipment from maintenance operations, pending shipment to nuclear installations,
• conditioned equipment pending expert reports made available by the customer's chosen deadline.

These activities are complemented by the organization and management of transport, using public roads for the reception or shipment of equipment belonging to nuclear sites.

Transportation

External transportation

This includes transports using public highways, for the reception and shipment of equipment to the site. This equipment can present significant amounts of radioactive material, and should therefore respond to the various rules set out in the regulations covering the transportation of radioactive materials (class 7 radioactive materials).

The regulations define several types of packaging, depending on the characteristics of the material to be transported (total and specific activities, physico-chemical form):

• Exempted packaging
• Industrial packaging (IP)
• A type packaging

Each type of packaging corresponds to safety requirements and to criteria for passing tests aimed at proving the capability of the packaging to withstand normal or accident transportation conditions.

Internal transportation

This relates to the internal transfer of radioactive materials only on-site, without using the public highway. These operations are carried out using specific packaging.
These transfers are realized according to the internal rules adapted by the regulation of the transport of radioactive materials.