Technology developed by Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, could soon play a role in safeguarding spent nuclear fuel rods around the world.
The Robotized Cherenkov Viewing Device (RCVD) was created through a collaboration between CSIRO’s data and digital specialist arm Data61, Hungarian robotics company Datastart, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The RCVD, which runs autonomy-enabling software designed by CSIRO’s Data61, has completed a successful test in an operating nuclear power facility in South America.
CSIRO Technical Program Manager, Rosie Attwell, said the prototype system navigated a spent fuel pond and provided inspectors with real time data that can be used for safeguards verification.
“The test demonstrates that autonomous robots could soon assist with field measurement and analysis of spent nuclear fuel, providing greater protection for human workers,” said Atwell.
“Inspectors currently operate above the pond on a suspended platform, sometimes in 40-degree Celsius heat, using a handheld device to identify hundreds of used nuclear fuel rods.
“This new technology will remove humans from harm’s way and ensure the rate of safety inspections matches that of nuclear material.”
The RCVD, a floating device, autonomously navigates a path across the pond while updating a real-time map with footage and data of the fuel assemblies.
It analyses each assembly’s position and unique signature to detect if fuel has been removed or replaced. Information is communicated back to human staff members.
The RCVD’s autonomy, navigation and mapping capabilities are underpinned by CSIRO’s Wildcat SLAM (Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping) technology, which achieved less than one per cent deviation from reality in DARPA’s Subterranean Challenge Final Event.
According to Dimitri Finker, Technology Foresight Specialist at the IAEA, using an autonomous system will reduce the burden of carrying in-field verifications for the facility operator and for the IAEA.
“It also significantly improves the quality of the data collected,” said Finker. “The instrument can be optimally positioned close to the fuel, leading to more consistent and accurate measurements.”
A game changer for spent nuclear fuel rod safety
IAEA nuclear safeguard inspectors during a spent fuel training exercise. The camera-like devices are what inspectors currently use to analyse spent fuel pools.Datastart CEO, Peter Kopias, said seamless integration of the hardware developed by Datastart and CSIRO’s own navigation stack is a perfect example of intercontinental engineering collaboration.
“Moving personnel out of harm’s way is the most important benefit, but the exceptional data quality and the ability to inspect previously unreachable covered areas is a game changer in nuclear inspection.” said Kopias.
CSIRO Project Engineer, Thomas Hines, said the team is fine-tuning the robot’s ability to navigate and take detailed photographs.
“When fuel is inspected manually by a human, they move the camera to a position where the soft gradient of light around the fuel is centred on the centre of the fuel assembly,” said Hines. “This is challenging to perform autonomously but our team expects to accomplish it.”
The prototype will continue to be tested, with plans for the device to be outfitted with computer vision to enhance autonomy in the next phase of development.
Spent nuclear fuel rods and the broader nuclear material supply chain
The IAEA confirm thousands of shipments of radioactive materials, including waste and spent nuclear fuel rods, are transported globally,
“As a result of the increased use of radioactive substances in, for example, industry, medicine and agriculture, shipments have become more frequent and larger in volume,” said IAEA.
“In addition, transport safety and security is vital during all stages of the nuclear fuel cycle – to and from nuclear power plants: at the front end, to transport uranium concentrates and new fuel assemblies; and at the back end, to transport radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel for storage or disposal.”
It is the IAEA’s mission to establish regulations for the transport of radioactive material, including spent nuclear fuel rods, by all modes.
The scope of IAEA’s transport regulations includes transport package design and composition, material categorisation, documentation, labelling and container marking.
The regulations are reported to deal with specific transport activities, including actual shipments, special arrangements and the transport index number assigned to a package to provide control over radioactive exposure. They also cover the conveyance, whether by road, rail, water or air to, through and across country borders.
IAEA fulfils its mission by promoting exacting international safety standards and transport regulations, and by providing for their correct application through intensive training and expert advisory services to member states.
“The end result of these efforts is the efficient and effective regulation of safety and security by member states during the worldwide transport of radio-pharmaceuticals needed for hospitals, sealed radioactive sources needed in industry, and during the movement of containers carrying spent nuclear fuel from operating and decommissioning nuclear reactors,” said IAEA. “As a result, in over 50 years there has never been a transport incident that has caused a significant radiological hazard to people or the environment.”
IAEA, headquartered in Vienna, Austria, was founded in 1957. It has two regional offices located in Toronto, Canada (since 1979) and Tokyo, Japan (since 1984) and two liaison offices in New York City, US (since 1957) and Geneva, Switzerland (since 1965).
Australia has been a member state of IAEA since the agency’s founding.
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