Robotics and Artificial Intelligence for Nuclear Plus (RAIN+)

核工业面临着一系列高度复杂和多样化的挑战，涉及退役、废物管理、裂变发电厂、先进的模块化反应堆和聚变反应堆。在英国，最大的挑战之一是退役遗留的存储设施。据估计，仅在英国就有大约3,000吨高放废物(HLW)、310,000吨中级废物(ILW)和数百个放射性设施需要退役。尽管在降雨的第一阶段取得了重大进展，但退役仍然几乎完全依靠人工操作，要求人们进入极其危险的环境，将自己置于危险之中。需要大量的个人防护装备(PPE)，这降低了灵活性，并将生产率降低到显著低于其他行业的水平。PPE还大大增加了必须处理的废物，因此使未来的一些操作变得不可行。例如，据估计，仅在塞拉菲尔德的索普工厂退役就需要100多万个合适的参赛者。因此，如果英国要解决退役挑战，RAI技术被认为是必不可少的。在未来一代的核电中，如果不对远程处理设备进行改进，聚变反应堆将无法运行。此外，如果新的裂变反应堆要在商业上可行，远程检查和维护是必不可少的。RAIN+将继续推动机器人和人工智能(RAI)科学的边界，开发解决核部门面临的重大挑战的机器人解决方案。为了确保这项工作具有相关性，对行业产生长期影响，并导致RAI技术部署到现役设施中，RAIN将继续与核最终用户、供应链和监管机构密切合作。此外，认识到核工业中遇到的许多危险普遍存在于农业、建筑、海上和医疗保健等其他工业部门，RAIN将努力扩大其用户和应用基础，以便能够开发具有跨部门相关性的RAI解决方案，并在第二阶段接近尾声时为所有具有挑战性的环境(不仅仅是核能)建立一个单一枢纽。

The nuclear industry has a vast array of highly complex and diverse challenges that span decommissioning, waste management, fission power plants, advanced modular reactors and fusion reactors. In the UK, one of the most significant challenges is to decommission legacy storage facilities. There is estimated to be approximately 3,000 tonnes of high-level waste (HLW), 310,000 tonnes of intermediate level waste (ILW) and hundreds of radioactive facilities that need to be decommissioned in the UK alone. Despite significant progress during the first phase of RAIN, decommissioning continues to rely almost exclusively on manual operations, requiring people to enter extremely hazardous environments placing themselves at risk. Significant amounts of personal protective equipment (PPE) is required, which reduces dexterity and lowers productivity to levels significantly below that of other industries. PPE also adds significantly to the waste materials that must be disposed of and as a consequence, makes some future operations infeasible. For example, it has been estimated that more than 1 million suited entries will be required to decommission the THORP plant alone on the Sellafield site. RAI technologies are therefore considered essential if the UK is to address its decommissioning challenges. In the future generation of nuclear power, fusion reactors will not be able to operate without advances being made to remote handling equipment. In addition, remote inspection and maintenance of new fission reactors is essential if they are to be commercially viable.RAIN+ will continue to push the boundaries of Robotics and AI (RAI) science, developing robotic solutions that solve major challenges facing the nuclear sector. To ensure that the work is relevant, has a long-term impact on industry, and leads to deployments of RAI technology into active facilities, RAIN will continue to work in close partnership with nuclear end-users, the supply chain and regulators. Furthermore, recognising that many of the hazards encountered in the nuclear industry are prevalent in other industry sectors, such as agriculture, construction, offshore and healthcare, RAIN will work to expand its user and application base such that RAI solutions can be developed that have cross-sector relevance and a single hub for all challenging environments, not just nuclear, can be established towards the end of this second phase.