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了里氏9.0级地震。这场被日本政府命名为东日本大地震的地震引发了一场巨大的海啸，淹没了超过200平方英里的沿海土地。这场毁灭性的灾难导致了一系列灾难性的故障，导致福岛第一核电站(NPP)熔毁，并引发了核紧急状态。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。然后燃料无法控制地加热，突破安全壳，或者产生足够的压力导致爆炸。福岛核电站的所有三个反应堆都发生了反应堆熔毁，导致燃料碎片散落在反应堆各处。回收福岛第一核电站的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并了解其位置。然而，在受损的反应堆安全壳内，辐射水平如此之高，构成了一个巨大的挑战。它阻止了人类的直接干预，可能会淹没探测器和传感器，损坏电子设备，并导致材料死亡。通往安全壳内部的通道也非常狭窄。为了进行一般观察，确定燃料碎片的成分、位置和回收，部署了专门的机器人。到目前为止，许多部署的机器人在运行过程中因辐射损伤而失败，或者它们的功能受到极端环境的严重阻碍。该项目结合了英国两项世界领先的与抗辐射便携式辐射检测相关的研究活动(兰开斯特大学)，以及与率先开发抗辐射处理器的冈山大学和神户市立理工大学合作开发的小型抗辐射遥控车辆(曼彻斯特大学)。这项研究的关键目标是开发和部署一种简化的机器人，它优先考虑辐射硬度和可靠性，而不是功能复杂性。假设是，‘这样的机器人能比目前所尝试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测。由辐射传感器和激光探测和测距(LiDAR)组成的耐辐射有效载荷将提供高放射性环境的三维(3D)空间测绘，叠加定位的辐射强度和放射性同位素身份。该机器人将在现实领域进行测试，以展示其定位和识别分散的放射性同位素的能力，这些放射性同位素来自福岛受损反应堆内的核燃料碎片。这种技术也适用于英国的核退役挑战，特别是在Sellafield Site Ltd.，以及英国原子能管理局在聚变能源方面的世界领先研究。

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.