Product development of a filling material installation device

Challenge:

A device was to be developed for the spent nuclear fuel disposal cave to safely and at the required speed pile tunnel filling blocks squeezed from clay into the disposal tunnels deep underground. In addition to installation precision, quality control and safety, the location of the cave at a depth of about 400 metres had to be taken into account in the design: the environmental conditions and the cramped nature of the tunnel, as well as possible changes in the filling pattern of the blocks, for example.

Solution:

Enmac developed the handling method and the device concept based on it, taking into account the product development boundary conditions, which were the planned size of the filling blocks, the filling speed, as well as the tunnel dimensions and structure. The product development resulted in an almost completely electromechanical device. In addition to design, Enmac also acted as the production supervisor of the prototype and participates in the testing of the prototype.

Result:

The prototype of an almost completely electromechanical mobile-controlled device. The device built on the basis of the prototype will be deployed in the future when the final disposal capsules of the spent nuclear fuel of nuclear power plants are placed in the bedrock.