Radiation Hardened robotics for remote INspectiOn - RHINO

2011年3月，日本本州岛东北海岸附近的太平洋发生9.0级地震。日本政府将其命名为东日本大地震，它引发了一场巨大的海啸，淹没了200多平方英里的沿海土地。这场毁灭性的灾难造成了一系列灾难性的故障，导致福岛第一核电站（NPP）熔毁，并启动了核紧急状态。当用于维持和控制核燃料温度的冷却系统失效时，反应堆就会熔毁。然后，燃料不受控制地升温，并突破安全壳或产生足够的压力，导致爆炸。福岛所有三个反应堆都发生了反应堆熔毁，导致燃料碎片散布在整个反应堆中。从福岛第一核电站回收燃料碎片对于退役和废物管理非常重要。这需要详细了解碎片中的放射性同位素组成及其位置。然而，在受损反应堆的安全壳内，辐射水平如此强烈，这是一个重大挑战。它阻止了人类的直接干预，可以压倒探测器和传感器，损坏电子设备并导致材料损坏。进入安全壳内部的通道也非常狭窄。为了进行一般性观察，确定燃料碎片的组成、位置和回收，部署了专用机器人。迄今部署的机器人中，有不少在操作过程中因辐射损伤而失效，或其功能因极端环境而严重受阻。这个项目汇集了英国两项与辐射相关的世界领先研究活动--抗辐射、便携式辐射探测（兰开斯特大学）和发展小，曼彻斯特大学与冈山大学和科比城市技术学院合作开发了抗辐射远程操作车辆，这两所大学是抗辐射处理器的先驱。该研究的主要目的是开发和部署一种简化的机器人，优先考虑辐射硬度和可靠性而不是功能复杂性。假设是，“这样的机器人能比迄今为止尝试过的复杂替代品更有效吗？”'.地面防辐射机器人将配备非破坏性传感器进行远程检查。由辐射传感器和激光雷达（光探测和测距）组成的耐辐射有效载荷将提供叠加有定位辐射强度和放射性同位素特性的高放射性环境的三维（3D）空间映射。该机器人将在真实的现场进行测试，以证明其定位和识别福岛受损反应堆内核燃料碎片中分散的放射性同位素的能力。这种技术也适用于英国的核退役挑战，特别是在塞拉菲尔德现场有限公司，以及英国原子能管理局在聚变能领域的世界领先研究。

In March 2011 a magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of Japan's Honshu island. Named the Great East Japan Earthquake by the Japanese government, it triggered a massive tsunami that flooded more than 200 square miles of coastal land. This devastating disaster caused a series of catastrophic failures resulting in the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) and initiated a nuclear emergency. Reactor meltdown occurs when the cooling systems used to maintain and control the temperature of the nuclear fuel fails. The fuel then heats up uncontrollably and breaches the containment vessel or creates enough pressure to cause an explosion. Reactor meltdown occurred at all three reactors at Fukushima, resulting in fuel debris being dispersed throughout the reactors.Retrieval of the fuel debris from the Fukushima Daiichi NPP is of great importance for decommissioning and waste management. It requires detailed understanding of the radioisotope composition within the debris and knowledge of their location. However, inside the stricken reactors' containment vessels, the radiation levels are so intense it presents a significant challenge. It prevents direct human intervention, can overwhelm detectors and sensors, damage electronics and cause materials to perish. Access routes to inside the containment vessels are also very narrow. To make general observations, identify fuel debris composition, location and retrieval, dedicated robots are deployed. Many of the robots deployed to date have failed due to radiation damage during operation or their function is severely hampered by the extreme environment.This project brings together two world-leading research activities in the United Kingdom associated with radiation-hard, portable radiation detection (Lancaster University) and the development of small, radiation-hard remotely-operated vehicles (The University of Manchester) in collaboration with Okayama University and Kobe City College of Technology who have pioneered radiation-hard processors. The key aim of the research is to develop and deploy a simplified robot that prioritises radiation hardness and reliability over functional complexity. The hypothesis is, 'can such robots be more effective than the sophisticated alternatives tried to date?'. The ground-based radiation-hard robot will be equipped with non-destructive sensors for remote inspection. A radiation tolerant payload consisting of radiation sensors and LiDAR (light detection and ranging) will afford 3-dimensional (3D) spatial mapping of highly radioactive environments superimposed with located radiation intensities and radioisotope identities. The robot will be tested in realistic fields to demonstrate its ability to locate and identify dispersed radioisotopes derived from nuclear fuel debris inside Fukushima's stricken reactors. Such technology is also applicable to the UK's nuclear decommissioning challenges, specifically at Sellafield Site Ltd., and world-leading research in fusion energy at the UK Atomic Energy Authority.