A survey of commercially available manipulators, end-effectors, and delivery systems for reactor decommissioning activities

Numerous nuclear facilities owned by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) are under consideration for decommissioning. Currently, there are no standardized, automated, remote systems designed to dismantle and thereby reduce the size of activated reactor components and vessels so that they can be packaged and shipped to disposal sites. Existing dismantling systems usually consist of customized, facility-specific tooling that has been developed to dismantle a specific reactor system. Such systems have a number of drawbacks. Generally, current systems cannot be disassembled, moved, and reused. Developing and deploying the tooling for current systems is expensive and time-consuming. In addition, the amount of manual work is significant because long-handled tools must be used; as a result, personnel are exposed to excessive radiation. A standardized, automated, remote system is therefore needed to deliver the tooling necessary to dismantle nuclear facilities at different locations. Because this system would be reusable, it would produce less waste. The system would also save money because of its universal design, and it would be more reliable than current systems