Initial situation

Decontamination and remote-controlled crushing of reinforced concrete elements are central points in the process of demolishing nuclear plants. A selective removal of the contaminated material is the main goal. This permits the remaining material, which is the major part in relation to the overall system / overall masses, to be fed into the normal recycling process.
The current problem is the demolition and selective in-depth removal of reinforced concrete elements. There is no procedure that removes the concrete including the reinforcement. Likewise, there is no procedure that can be used in cracks in which reinforced concrete must be removed in an very limited section (such as 30 cm deep) so that the absence of contamination can be measured on the surface.
The goal of this research project is the development of a new and general-purpose system that enables the demolishing companies for the first time to demolish highly reinforced concrete in one work pass with minimum personnel and without changing system or components. Using existing systems shall lead to a holistic process-related chain from demolition and crushing up to a packaging that is compatible with the final storage. Looking at this chain under the aspect of the currently used techniques shows you that - although the concrete can be removed in a remote-controlled process - a second work pass is required to cut the reinforcement with separate cutting equipment.
The project called INAS is sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Research partners are the professorship of Technology and Management for the Decommissioning of Nuclear Facilities (TMRK) and the chair of Mobile Machinery, both at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), as well as the Herrenknecht AG.

Investigation program

Research on the state of the art in the field of decontaminating and demolition procedures for reinforced concrete
Concept development and subsequent test implementation of verified cutting technology
Development and production of a manipulator to the tool holder
Implementation of a conveyor and packaging equipment in the process chain
Performing laboratory experiments for parameter optimization
Usage of the demonstrator in tests