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You cant dismantle a plant that still generates residual heat while a used fuel pool is on fire nearby. Its just too dangerous a place for humans to be. What sh

You cant dismantle a plant that still generates residual heat while a used fuel pool is on fire nearby. Its just too dangerous a place for humans to be. What should they have done? Sent Asimo?

Tuna-Fish 16y ago
Just note that robots don't work either, because particle radiation has a nasty way of flipping bits stored in memory. In the presence of a strong beta ray source, you can treat sram and dram as good sources of truly random data. :)
- varjag 16y ago
  There are of course ways to shield from that (as illustrated by spacecraft and common military electronics), but nuclear station damage control robotics is perhaps too niche application to be implemented.
  - joegaudet 16y ago
    As I understand it, canadian CANDU reactors use a robotic system to perform online refueling. They also use heavy water as a moderator, and burn unrefined uranium / [can] spent fuel from other reactors pretty impressive machines I think.
    - Create 16y ago
      FRAMATOME/AREVA/etc. also. But they don't always work well, as the history of industrial robotic arms from the nuclear business tells us...
    - iuytghyjuyh 16y ago
      Everybody uses a robotic system for refueling - really it's just a crane that seals to each fuel rod tube cap. The problem with CANDU is that you can't operate them with a fast enough fuel cycle to produce weapons grade Pu so they are only economic in nuclear countries that aren't interested in weapons.
  - Create 16y ago
    FNAL, BNL, CERN ...and KEK all use radhard electronics (obviously not everywhere), admittedly on the fringes of your illustrating application areas. Combined, that is already quite a large area, so to my mind parts for tough (damage) control robotics isn't such a niche. But true, small production runs and spares is a real issue (actually, by the time they are really used, they are already obsolete -- but this is why you have upgrade plans :).
  - jpk 16y ago
    In fact, an article about this was on HN in the not-too-distant past. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2359081 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2359081

You cant dismantle a plant that still generates residual heat while a used fuel pool is on fire nearby. Its just too dangerous a place for humans to be. What should they have done? Sent Asimo?

Tuna-Fish 16y ago

Just note that robots don't work either, because particle radiation has a nasty way of flipping bits stored in memory. In the presence of a strong beta ray source, you can treat sram and dram as good sources of truly random data. :)

varjag 16y ago
There are of course ways to shield from that (as illustrated by spacecraft and common military electronics), but nuclear station damage control robotics is perhaps too niche application to be implemented.
- joegaudet 16y ago
  As I understand it, canadian CANDU reactors use a robotic system to perform online refueling. They also use heavy water as a moderator, and burn unrefined uranium / [can] spent fuel from other reactors pretty impressive machines I think.
  - Create 16y ago
    FRAMATOME/AREVA/etc. also. But they don't always work well, as the history of industrial robotic arms from the nuclear business tells us...
  - iuytghyjuyh 16y ago
    Everybody uses a robotic system for refueling - really it's just a crane that seals to each fuel rod tube cap. The problem with CANDU is that you can't operate them with a fast enough fuel cycle to produce weapons grade Pu so they are only economic in nuclear countries that aren't interested in weapons.
- Create 16y ago
  FNAL, BNL, CERN ...and KEK all use radhard electronics (obviously not everywhere), admittedly on the fringes of your illustrating application areas. Combined, that is already quite a large area, so to my mind parts for tough (damage) control robotics isn't such a niche. But true, small production runs and spares is a real issue (actually, by the time they are really used, they are already obsolete -- but this is why you have upgrade plans :).
- jpk 16y ago
  In fact, an article about this was on HN in the not-too-distant past. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2359081 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2359081