Efforts to safely decommission nuclear sites took an interesting turn. AtkinsRéalis, a Canadian engineering firm, successfully employed a Boston Dynamics robot dog to work in a hazardous site while they controlled it from a remote location. This exciting development can mean big things for the future.
The remote-controlled mission took place at Sellafield in Cumbria, England. Sellafield is a large nuclear site that generated nuclear power between 1956 and 2003. Currently, the site processes and stores nuclear waste. However, as the structures that store that waste continue to age and degrade, the risk of catastrophe increases.
That's why the site is slowly being decommissioned. The plan is to have the project squared away by 2125, with a total estimated cost of well over $100 billion.
However, those plans, which began in 2005, were unable to account for the sort of technology that could be employed just two decades later. Boston Dynamics' Spot robot, for instance, did not become commercially available until 2020. These computer-powered pups are multitalented, and they may just revolutionize nuclear decommissioning.
Working in tandem with Sellafield Ltd., AtkinsRéalis used a custom Spot robot to inspect the site, gather data, and perform cleanup tasks. It was all done from the safety of an offsite location using live-streamed footage on a highly secure virtual access network.
"Operators working from an immersive room at the Westlakes Science Park in Whitehaven, West Cumbria, have proven they can remotely operate a robot on the Sellafield site safely and securely, with huge potential for the future of our clean-up mission," a joint statement from the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and Sellafield said.
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The implications of this successful mission are tremendous for the gargantuan project of decommissioning Sellafield, but they extend well beyond that.
Projects similar to this one are occurring in places all over. Employing remote-controlled robots to do dangerous work on these sites can help keep humans from risking their lives. It can also provide quicker, more effective cleanup, meaning surrounding communities and the environment will be safer, too.
Nuclear energy has tremendous potential to help humanity, and recent breakthroughs have made it even more viable. However, there are serious risks involved with anything involving radioactive waste. The success of this project may offer a way to mitigate those risks.
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