MOORESVILLE, N.C. - Representatives from EM headquarters, the Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office, Savannah River National Laboratory, and cleanup contractors came together for a demonstration on new technology combining robots and lasers for use in hazardous, confined spaces.
The May 17 demonstration focused on the "snake arm" robot, which can assist with size-reduction cleanup tasks at nuclear reactors and gaseous diffusion plants, such as EM’s Portsmouth Site. Users can deploy the robot remotely in areas of high radioactivity and limited access. It quickly cuts through materials and generates less secondary waste and debris than other methods, such as hand-held plasma arc cutters.
In a mockup demonstration, the robot’s laser cutter made longitudinal, radial and angled cuts of steel and concrete up to an inch and a half thick to show how it would reduce the size of components as part of deactivation and decommissioning (D&D). It also demonstrated how it can manage angled profiles.
EM is increasingly promoting the use of advanced robotic technologies to enhance worker health and safety and improve performance, productivity and overall quality. EM’s mission and cleanup challenges match with the many domains of robotics, involving underwater, belowground, aerial, and access-restricted locations.
EM Office of Infrastructure and Deactivation and Decommissioning Director Andrew Szilagyi planned the demonstration with the Electric Power Research Institute. EM contractors Atkins, Westinghouse and Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth, the Portsmouth Site cleanup contractor, attended.
United Kingdom’s (U.K.) Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), Sellafield Ltd., OC Robotics and TWI developed the robot and the laser, which has been used to reduce the size of large metal artifacts, such as fuel skips and dissolver vessels, in the past year.
“We have been talking with the U.K. about the development of this system for some time and it is pleasing to see the long-running collaboration between DOE and NDA bearing fruit, especially in the field of robotics," Szilagyi said. “I hope this is the first of many similar projects between our organizations."
PPPO D&D Federal Project Director Judson Lilly described the demonstration as “spectacular."
“It answered a number of questions we have had about the use of laser cutting for this application and showed that the technology has moved on a lot further than we realized," Lilly said. “I was particularly impressed with the fact that the system uses regular shop voltage of 415 volts and has a self-contained chiller unit for the laser so that no major building modifications are necessary for these utilities."
NuVision Engineering hosted the demonstration at its testing facility in Mooresville, North Carolina in May. NuVision has a contract with EM headquarters to support international technology transfer and demonstration.
Demonstration participants will discuss a path forward following the event.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Environmental Management
