Analysis of the Remote Operation in a Digital Mockup of the Advanced Spent Fuel Conditioning Process

Spent nuclear fuel is a high radioactive material and is handled in the hot cell. The ACP equipment is operated in intense radiation fields as well as in a high temperature. Thus, the equipment is operated in a remote manner and should be designed with a consideration for a remote handling and maintenance. Also a suitable remote handling technology needs to be developed along with the design of the process concepts. In this paper, the remote operation of the advanced spent fuel conditioning process (ACP) is analyzed by using 3D graphic simulation tools. For this we developed a digital mockup (DM), which provides the capability of verifying the remote operability of the ACP with the virtual equipment. In other words, by applying a virtual reality to a remote maintenance operation, a remote operation task can be simulated in the DM, not in the physical mockup, that is a real environment. The graphic simulator will substantially reduce the cost of the development of the remote handling and maintenance procedure as well as the process equipment, while at the same time developing a remote maintenance concept that is more reliable, easier to implement, and easier to understand.