The decision to shut down all nuclear power plants in the Federal Republic of Germany is accompanied by the necessity to dismantle the decommissioned nuclear power plants properly. Since activated components are to be expected, especially in the area around the reactor, special conditions must be observed for the dismantling and final disposal of radioactive waste with negligible heat generation. In order to store this waste in the “Schacht Konrad” repository near Salzgitter, Germany, it is packed in containers. These filled containers have to fulfil specified boundary conditions. The storage of the containers is associated with high costs; moreover, there is only limited space available in the final repository.
In order to make maximum use of the filling volume of a container, the dismantling and packaging is to be optimised and simulated in advance with the help of digital methods such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) and the use of game engines. This procedure will be tested using the example of a biological shield. This is first created as a BIM model and then enriched with information regarding the material and the specific activity of the isotopes. The BIM model is then imported into a game engine, in which it is decomposed in an algorithm-based process. This algorithm has to be optimised taking into account the boundary conditions and with regard to maximising the storage capacity of the containers.
