Remote maintenance technologies of equipment and analyzing apparatus in hot cell of Tokai Vitrification Facility, Tokai Reprocessing Plant

Aoya, Juri; Miyata, Katsuhiko*; Terakado, Akihito*; Otsuzumi, Yoji*; Kurosawa, Daiki*; Sunaba, Takanobu*; Oyama, Yuto*; Inada, Satoshi

The high level radioactive liquid waste is analyzed for the vitrification process control and the vitrified waste quality in the hot cell of Tokai Vitrification Facility, Tokai Reprocessing Plant. There are 8 Master-slave manipulators, 7 lighting equipment, an electronic balance, and an inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometer used for remote operation, securing visibility, total oxide analysis, and elemental analysis in the analytical hot cell. These equipment and analytical apparatus must be secured with the integrity all the time because the vitrification process cannot be proceeded without analysis of the high level radioactive liquid waste. We constructed the self-remote-maintenance technologies of these equipment and analytical apparatus which reduce the risks of radioactive contamination, radiation exposure, and injury of an operator and also were optimized with respect to a labor, time, and cost, based on the operation of approximately 20 years.