Abstract
The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Technology Development (OTD) develops technologies to help solve waste management and environmental problems at DOE sites. The OTD includes the Robotics Technology Development Program (RTDP) and the Mixed Waste Integrated Program (MWIP). Together these programs will provide technologies for DOE mixed waste cleanup projects. Mixed waste contains both radioactive and hazardous constituents. DOE sites currently store over 240,000 cubic meters of low level mixed waste and cleanup activities will generate several hundred thousand more cubic meters. Federal and state regulations require that this waste must be processed before final disposal. The OTD RTDP Mixed Waste Operations (MWO) team held several robotic demonstrations at the Savannah River Site (SRS) during November of 1993. Over 330 representatives from DOE, Government Contractors, industry, and universities attended. The MWO team includes: Fernald Environmental Management Project (FEMP), Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Oak Ridge National Engineering Laboratory (ORNL), Sandia National Laboratory (SNL), and Savannah River Technology Center (SRTC). SRTC is the lead site for MWO and provides the technical coordinator. The primary demonstration objective was to show that robotic technologies can make DOE waste facilities run better, faster, more cost effective, and safer. To meet the primary objective, the demonstrations successfully showed the following remote waste drum processing activities: non-destructive drum examination, drum transportation, drum opening, removing waste from a drum, characterize and sort waste items, scarify metal waste, and inspect stored drums. To further meet the primary objective, the demonstrations successfully showed the following remote waste box processing activities: swing free crane control, workcell modeling, and torch standoff control.
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