Radioactive Waste 218 - Research In Robotic Systems For Cleaning Up The Sellafield Site In The United Kingdom
Sellafield is a nuclear fuel reprocessing and nuclear decommissioning site, is northwest of London on the Irish Sea. A great deal of the development and manufacture of U.K. nuclear weapons took place there from the 1950s on. Hundreds of tons of radioactive waste were stored in huge cooling pools and ignored as the facilities deteriorated.
The U.K. government is finally dedicating two and a half billion dollars a year to cleaning up this horribly polluted site before disaster strikes and releases radioactive contamination across the countryside. The radiation is so intense that it is dangerous for human beings to work on the cleanup. The U.K. is turning to robotics for help in the cleanup and Sellafield has become a major research and development center for robots dedicated to working in highly radioactive environments.
Small robots from several different companies are currently working at Sellafield. They scoop up sludge and other debris from the bottom of the cooling pools and place it in steel containers for disposal. Thousands of pieces of radioactive debris have been removed by the little robots.
Forth Robotics is working on a six hundred and fifty thousand dollar robot at Sellafield. The robot has six legs and is about the size of a coffee table. Sensors and cameras are attached to the exterior so the robot can keep track of its environment and movements. There are magnets on the feet of the robot that will allow it to climb up walls. The robot has a giant pincher on the front like the claw of a crab. The pincher will allow the robot to grab pieces of contaminated material and break them up for disposal. There will be groups of these robots working on cleanup. Onboard artificial intelligence will allow the robots to communication with each other and make their own decisions without the need for constant human control.
Forth has constructed a working prototype but actual production models are at least eighteen months away. The robots will have to be permanently plugged into a power source and they will have to trail a power cord behind them. Human operators will have to monitor operations and give permission for the robots to carry out delicate operations such as moving a nuclear fuel rod. It is not yet known how well the robots will be able to withstand the intense radiation of their working environments. Once sent into a highly radioactive environment, they will not be able to be recovered and used elsewhere.
A company called Createc is working on drones at Sellafield. They have developed a quadcopter drone that can fly around in restricted spaces. The drones carry "cameras, air-pressure sensors, gyrometers, accelerometers, and other measuring tools that stream back 3D maps to aid in locating radioactive material." Createc is also working on the cleanup of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
The head of robotic and autonomous systems development at Sellafield says that technological advances in the next decades will equip robots with more power artificial intelligence that will allow them to "improvise within unpredictable environments".
