Robot 'dog' to support Spanish decommissioning project
Energy services group GDES and technology company Alisys are developing an autonomous quadruped robot for decommissioning and waste management firm Enresa to support the decommissioning of the Santa María de Garoña Nuclear Power Plant in Spain.
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The robot will be developed and launched through a temporary joint venture between Alisys and GDES, which will develop a bespoke system based on technology from Boston Dynamics using the Spot Enterprise quadruped robot.
The system will feature a high-precision robotic arm with the capacity to incorporate different measuring instruments and advanced spectrometric analysis software, which will allow for real-time interpretation of data. The system will be connected to a cloud platform, enabling management of the collected data and remote operation of the robot.
The project comprises solution development, testing and commissioning, and the training of Enresa personnel who will eventually operate it at the facility, GDES said.
The robot will be used to characterise materials, walls and floors for the decommissioning and dismantling of Garoña, a single-unit 446 MWe boiling water reactor plant which was closed in December 2012 and defuelled shortly afterwards. Enresa took ownership of the plant in 2023, embarking on a two-phase decommissioning programme that is expected to take ten years to complete.
"As the first initiative of its kind in Spain, this technological investment will enable Enresa to enhance the identification of non-contaminated areas, increase efficiency, and streamline the process of measuring and characterising radioactive waste bound for the El Cabril disposal facility. It also reinforces Enresa's commitment to ALARA principles (As Low As Reasonably Achievable) and to occupational risk prevention during decommissioning activities," a GDES spokesperson said.
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