The installation of the two overhead bridge cranes, which will be used to carry out the stacking operations of reinforced-concrete containers loaded with radioactive waste in the National Disposal Facility for radioactive waste, has been completed in full.
The 30-tonne facilities are positioned immediately under the two mobile roofs protecting the RAW packages from external atmospheric conditions during the process of filling the cells and during construction of the roof plate of each cell. The facilities will be controlled remotely through SCADA monitoring and control system; thereby, SERAW protects its own personnel by minimizing dose uptake in accordance with the ALARA* principle.
The cranes’ instrumentation and control systems are due to be connected, as well as the cameras, through which the operators will carry out the activities on stacking the RAW packages from the control room. It is intended to install buffers to protect the mobile roofs’ structure against impact, as well as to clad it with with wall and roof steel sheets.
All crane operation systems are subject to technical supervision and functional tests before being commissioned.
*ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achievable) – one of the main criteria formulated as early as 1954 by the International Commission on Radiologic Protection in order to minimize the harmful effects of ionizing radiation. It envisages maintaining the lowest possible achievable level of both individual (lower than the limits established by the effective regulations) and collective exposure doses, taking into account social and economic factors.
