Session: 02-03 Modeling, Work Management and Data Analysis Software

Paper Number: 109367

109367 - Creation of a Digital Model to Support Decontamination, Dismantling and Demolition of a Nuclear Facility 

Nucleco SpA has recently invested some of its financial and human resources in a new activity which concerns the virtualization of nuclear facilities. This process involves three main steps: the digitalization of plant legacy data, the point cloud acquisition and finally the 3D parametric model creation.

By definition a digital model is a digital representation of a real-world, physical system/plant which serves as its digital counterpart for practical purposes, such as simulation, remote monitoring and maintenance.

Nowadays, Nucleco’s digitalization process starts with the study of the plant legacy data. The latter allows a preliminary analysis of the area, and consequently to plan the next steps of the whole process. The legacy data are then digitalized in order to be attached to the future 3D model as metadata.

By using different kinds of instruments, namely laser scanners, lidars and SLAM technologies, it is possible to acquire both photographic data and raw point clouds of the area of interest. Then the acquired point clouds are merged to realize the whole Project Point Cloud; this output can be immediately used to verify the mismatching between the old DWGs of the plant and the current conformation of the facility.

This final cloud not only is fully explorable and searchable, but also can be equipped with conventional and radiological tags (such as component data sheets, instrument manuals, area dose rates, etc.). During cloud remote navigation, they show all relevant data of systems, structures, and components.

The last step, the 3D parametric model creation, is carried out using specific types of software, comparing the geometrical data of the point cloud to the geometrical information of the digitalized legacy data.

In conclusion, all the information collected and used as parameters during the digital plant reconstruction is then linked to the 3D final model as metadata (legacy data, point cloud, tags).

The aforementioned model then allows storage of the plant data into a single digital archive, supports plant management, and optimizes planning of the decommissioning activities.

In this paper, the process of 3D model generation is presented and contextualized with actual reconstruction examples.

Presenting Author: Cristiana Del Bene Nucleco S.p.A.

Presenting Author Biography: My name is Cristiana Del Bene, I'm from Italy and graduated in Nuclear Engineering from Sapienza University (Rome, Italy) one year and half ago. To conclude my studies at Sapienza, I carried out a five-month interniship as the assistant to Nucleco's Radiation Protection Experts.
Now I have been working in Nucleco for a year in a team of young engineers who deal with 3D reconstruction of plants/environments characterized by the risk of ionizing radiation. I personally follow the digitalization process in its first and second step: point cloud acquisitions and reconstruction of the whole project's point cloud.