Robots in Radiation Environments

摘要

Abstract Los Alamos National Laboratory has historically been involved with routine handling of a wide variety of hazardous materials. The majority of activities involve nuclear materials in projects ranging from medicinal uses to weapons technology development. The robotics development program at the Laboratory is primarily focused on identifying and automating operations that subject personnel to ionizing radiation, are repetitive, and are subject to human error. Development of automated technology for these operations will help meet national nuclear materials processing demands through the transfer of expertise gained at Los Alamos to other Department of Energy facilities. Robotic equipment that is compatible with glove box environments analytical instrument and in particular LC apparatus does not exist commercially, hence there is a need to design and/or modify systems that can tolerate environments encountered in Special Nuclear Material processing operations. Because of the interaction of atomic fission fragments with the almost unlimited array of solid materials, developing equipment for this environment involves a wide variety of factors. This report provides a brief review of general considerations for material compatability in radiation environments. Several different types of robotic applications are currently under development at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Some of the special considerations both in materials compatability and operational constraints are summarized in the individual project descriptions.