Aspects of Nuclear Power Plant Digital Decommissioning

Jharko, Elena; Meshcheryakov, Roman; Promyslov, Vitaly

doi:10.1109/sibcon50419.2021.9438885

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 19 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Using advanced manufacturing and digital twin technology in the nuclear energy industry is not without challenges (Fuller et al, 2020;Roy et al, 2020;Jharko et al, 2021;Kochunas and Huan, 2021;Yadav et al, 2023). One of the significant challenges is data management.…”

Section: Operation Of Nuclear Power Plantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advanced manufacturing and digital twin technology for nuclear energy*

Mondal,

Martinez,

Jain

2024

Front. Energy Res.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Advanced manufacturing techniques and digital twin technology are rapidly transforming the nuclear industry, offering the potential to enhance productivity, safety, and cost-effectiveness. Customized parts are being produced using additive manufacturing, automation, and robotics, while digital twin technology enables the virtual modeling and optimization of complex systems. These advanced technologies can significantly improve operational efficiency, predict system behavior, and optimize maintenance schedules in the nuclear energy sector, leading to heightened safety and reduced downtime. However, the nuclear industry demands the highest levels of safety and security, as well as intricate manufacturing processes and operations. Thus, challenges such as data management and cybersecurity must be addressed to fully realize the potential of advanced manufacturing techniques and digital twin technology in the nuclear industry. This comprehensive review highlights the critical role of digital twin technology with advanced manufacturing toward nuclear energy to improve performance, minimize downtime, and heighten safety, ultimately contributing to the global energy mix by providing dependable and low-carbon electricity.

show abstract

Section: Operation Of Nuclear Power Plantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advanced manufacturing and digital twin technology for nuclear energy*

Mondal,

Martinez,

Jain

2024

Front. Energy Res.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…With advancements in technology, use of remotely controlled robotic manipulators has become popular in decommissioning processes within a wide range of applications, such as extraction and disposal of radioactive materials, decontamination and demolition of buildings, dismantling and lifting equipment [81]. Furthermore, digitalisation of industrial processes with principles of Industry 4.0 enables a myriad of flexible solutions to nuclear power plant decommissioning.…”

Section: Related Work: Mr Fleetsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Levels of contaminated water, or "liquor", within a containment vessel require regular inspection to ensure that the fluid level does not fall below a certain threshold due to natural evaporation; the refilling and draining of which utilise pipework that may be prone to malfunction and leakage over time [75,76]. An evaluation of incidents, reported by Sellafield Ltd. over the period 2017-2022, has shown that of 35 events reported to safety authorities, 19 involved contaminants suspended within fluid and/or radioactive liquor leakage [80,81]. To maintain the safety of radioactive facilities, and the surrounding environment, the detection and characterisation of contamination is a regulatory requirement [88][89][90][91][92].…”

Section: Sensing Aqueous Contaminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lessons learned: Symbiotic autonomous robot ecosystem for nuclear environments

Mitchell,

Emor Baniqued,

Zahid

et al. 2023

IET Cyber-Syst and Robotics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Nuclear facilities have a regulatory requirement to measure radiation levels within Post Operational Clean Out (POCO) around nuclear facilities each year, resulting in a trend towards robotic deployments to gain an improved understanding during nuclear decommissioning phases. The UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority supports the view that human‐in‐the‐loop (HITL) robotic deployments are a solution to improve procedures and reduce risks within radiation characterisation of nuclear sites. The authors present a novel implementation of a Cyber‐Physical System (CPS) deployed in an analogue nuclear environment, comprised of a multi‐robot (MR) team coordinated by a HITL operator through a digital twin interface. The development of the CPS created efficient partnerships across systems including robots, digital systems and human. This was presented as a multi‐staged mission within an inspection scenario for the heterogeneous Symbiotic Multi‐Robot Fleet (SMuRF). Symbiotic interactions were achieved across the SMuRF where robots utilised automated collaborative governance to work together, where a single robot would face challenges in full characterisation of radiation. Key contributions include the demonstration of symbiotic autonomy and query‐based learning of an autonomous mission supporting scalable autonomy and autonomy as a service. The coordination of the CPS was a success and displayed further challenges and improvements related to future MR fleets.

show abstract

“…Additionally, it mentions a 4-year project in France run by the Électricité de France (EDF) to create DTs for nuclear reactors. In (Apte, 2021), a multidisciplinary team is also working on developing DTs for nuclear reactors (Jharko et al, 2021). has designed a digital twin as a solution for the decommissioning issue of NPPs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A nuclear power plant digital twin for developing robot navigation and interaction

Vairagade,

Kim,

Son

et al. 2024

Front. Energy Res.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

As robot technologies are rapidly improving, an increasing number of new ideas on utilizing robots for automated operation and maintenance tasks in nuclear power plants (NPPs) are being studied. However, due to safety concerns, researchers hardly found opportunities to test their new robot solutions on physical NPPs. In that sense, an efficient and realistic simulation environment plays a vital role in the development of automation systems for an NPP. In this paper, we propose the design of a 3D digital twin system capable of simulating NPP in real-time. This system obtains the data from a full-scope NPP simulator to reproduce the operating conditions of the plant. In addition, a scenario of a team of robots performing inspection tasks like temperature and pressure measurements will highlight its usability. This system enables development of intelligent robot swarms to deploy for inspection and maintenance purposes. It will positively impact autonomous control and operations for many types of reactors by reducing uncertainty in autonomous control and providing the tools necessary for remote intervention.

show abstract

Aspects of Nuclear Power Plant Digital Decommissioning

Cited by 6 publications

References 19 publications

Advanced manufacturing and digital twin technology for nuclear energy*

Advanced manufacturing and digital twin technology for nuclear energy*

Lessons learned: Symbiotic autonomous robot ecosystem for nuclear environments

A nuclear power plant digital twin for developing robot navigation and interaction

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About