Westinghouse’s experts were contracted to design an innovative solution for aging components and soon-to-be obsolete equipment. Designed and built in 2002, the LIM Control Centre (LCC) is used to perform Spacer Location and Repositioning (SLAR) activities using loose fitting garter springs on a CANDU® reactor. The SLAR tool locates and repositions the loose-fitting annulus spacers around the pressure tube to their desired positions in the fuel channel. Movement of the spacers is done through two Linear Induction Motors (LIM) where the Ram LIM (RLIM) moves the spacers in the middle of the fuel channel and the Free LIM (FLIM) moves the spacers near the ends of the fuel channel.
The electronic equipment that controls the power used to fire the LIMs is contained in the LCC. The LCC provides power, protection, control, and instrumentation functions for the SLAR Tool LIMs. The LCC is primarily composed of four cabinets, which include the Power Cabinet that houses the 600V equipment and the Controls Cabinet that houses the computational units, which control the SLAR system along with other lower voltage equipment that monitors various system parameters.
With failure of equipment an increasing concern for sustainability of the program, a new drop-in replacement was needed to ensure safe and successful continued operation.
Westinghouse worked closely with the utilities to reverse engineer the current system to design a seamless drop-in replacement. As part of redesign activities, the Westinghouse team sought to make improvements to the base design that would make the system easier and more cost effective to maintain in order to improve the return on investment for the modification.
The knowledge and attention to detail by Westinghouse experts led to successful deployment and integration. Without any station disruptions, the SLAR LCC cart has been in use at the utility site since release in 2019. The design was subsequently purchased in 2020 by another utility for use.