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World's Largest Heap of Untreated Nuclear Waste Needs More Bots to Cart Around Irradiated Crap

posted by martyb on Monday September 23 2019, @02:58PM   Printer-friendly
from the bot++ dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Sellafield nuclear power station in Cumbria, northern England, is calling for help to increase the number of robots it uses to monitor and clean the site.

[...] It needs robots that can be deployed to remotely work at height in hazardous areas. It is also looking for machines able to autonomously remove "Special Nuclear Material" packages from a store and put them in a container for export, as well as droids that can remotely inspect the packages.

Sellafield is in the process of being decommissioned, meaning staff and robots are retrieving nuclear waste and reprocessing spent fuel. The Magnox reprocessing plant is due to close next year, which signals an end to nuclear fuel reprocessing in the UK.

Sellafield opened in 1950 and now lays claim to the unenviable title of the world's largest inventory of untreated nuclear waste.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 23 2019, @06:44PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 23 2019, @06:44PM (#897729)

    Contrary to the popular view, off-the-shelf electronics does not work much correctly nearby strong radioactivity sources.

  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday September 23 2019, @08:10PM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday September 23 2019, @08:10PM (#897771)

    off-the-shelf electronics does not work much correctly nearby strong radioactivity sources.

    So, then, go old school and skip the semiconductors - the shelves are dustier, but still well stocked.

    Seems like the sort of thing that would be handy in just about any nuke plant anywhere in the world

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]

  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday September 23 2019, @09:21PM (1 child)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 23 2019, @09:21PM (#897813) Journal

    Contrary to the popular view, off-the-shelf electronics does not work much correctly nearby strong radioactivity sources.

    Just use electronics and rov's in the cloud!

    Then it is somebody else's problem.

    A magical fix for every problem.

    --
    The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 23 2019, @10:15PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 23 2019, @10:15PM (#897837)

      Just use electronics and rov's in the cloud!

      But the electronics not working inside the radiation cloud was the gp's entire point!