Development of Zeolite Removal Robot for Decommissioning

Abstract

The transfer of stagnant water from the basement floor of the waste treatment building at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station is planned because of the possibility of water flowing out of the building if another tsunami occurs. However, the basement floor is installed with high-dose zeolite sandbags as adsorbents for radioactive materials, which renders their removal challenging. In this study, we conduct a field survey and field reproduction as well as develop a robot that can perform zeolite removal based on the results obtained. In addition, we perform verification tests in a full-scale mock-up test environment and extract issues for application to actual equipment.