Experience and prospects of using robotics in the nuclear power industry

Abstract

It is impossible to imagine the modern nuclear power industry without the use of robotics. Monitoring of equipment and structures conditions, elimination of accidents and catastrophes consequences are wide application areas of robots that allow to reduce the radiation load on personnel. In the near future, the global nuclear power industry will inevitably face the need to decommission nuclear power plants that were built in the 1970s-1980s, which currently form the core of nuclear generation. This determines the high relevance and importance of developing scientifically grounded methods and approaches to decontamination and dismantling of nuclear power plant radioactive structures with the preferential use of robotic technology. A review of domestic and international experience in the use of industrial and specialized robots in the field of nuclear energy allows us to assess the state and prospects of this direction, as well as to recognize the discrepancy between the existing technological level of robotic means and the promising tasks in the field of decommissioning of industrial nuclear reactors. In this case, it is considered appropriate and relevant to rapidly develop robotics as well as information simulation models that allow to provide various scenarios for dismantling of radioactive structures and equipment with the greatest involvement of modern robotic systems in this process.