Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology

ISSN: 0022-3131 (Print) 1881-1248 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tnst20

A Robotic Approach to Reduction of Personnel

Radiation Exposure in Nuclear Power Plants

Masaaki FUJII , Toshio KIMURA & Ken-ichiro SADAKANE

To cite this article: Masaaki FUJII , Toshio KIMURA & Ken-ichiro SADAKANE (1976) A Robotic
Approach to Reduction of Personnel Radiation Exposure in Nuclear Power Plants, Journal of
Nuclear Science and Technology, 13:8, 462-464

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/18811248.1976.9734056

Published online: 15 Mar 2012.

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Journal of NucLEAR SciENcE and TECHNOLOGY, 13(8), pp. 462~464 (August 1976).

1 shows the summary of the job analysis at

SHoRT NoTE
A Robotic Approach to Reduction
of Personnel Radiation Exposure
in Nuclear Power Plants
a typical BWR-3 type plant in operation.
Daily man hours were given as the average
of about 250 days operation except the refuel-
ing and maintenance outage.
Average works (man-hr/day)
0 5 10

Masaaki FUJII, Toshio KIMURA INSPECTION

and Ken-ichiro SADAKANE· SURVEILLA- /// f/A
NCE TEST
Atomic Energy Research Laboratory, MAINTENA-
NCE
Hitachi, Ltd.* REPAIRS ~
MONITOR-
Received February 17, 197 6 ING
~ Works under radiation.
KEYWORDS: inspection, patrol, tele- D Works in a control room.
operation, remote control, nuclear
Fig. 1 Jobs during normal operation at
power plants, manipulators, autono- a typical nuclear power plant
mous vehicle, stereoscopic television,
external irradiation, radiation pro- In the present plants equipment inspection
tection is performed by an operator in patrol. The
operator is informed of the equipment status
Since commercial nuclear power plants through his senses. Figure 2 shows inspec-
have been in operation, labor shortage is tion items in a reactor building and necessary
getting one of the primary concerns in nuclear human senses. In Fig. 2, each inspection
power industries and utilities. Especially, the point includes a few items corresponding to
problem is severe for the jobs under radiation several equipments in place. Sense of sight
oJ. There might be a few approaches to performs the major role in inspection, which
replace a man working into a hostile environ- covers about 70% of the inspection points.
ment. The introduction of a robot will be
one of the solutions. In this report we pro- INSPECTION NUMBER CF INSPECTION POINTS
ITEMS 0 20 40 60
pose a conception of a remote inspection
STEAM/WATER
system for the reduction of occupational radi- LEAKAGE
VALVE OPENING
ation exposure.
INSTRUMENT
READING
1. Job Analysis
In nuclear power plants, works in the BRUSH SPARK SIGHT
reactor building can be classified into four APPEARANCE
categories. MACHINE
VIBRATION
(1) Operation : Operation of hand valves MACHINE
TOUCH
and adjustment of local controllers. TEMPERATURE
PARTS LOOSEN! HEARING
(2) Inspection : Regular patrol, three times MACHINE
or more in a dayc 2 J and inspection at SMELL
OVERHEATING
abnormal occurrences.
(3) Maintenance: Lube oil supply, demin- Fig. 2 Spectrum of functions necessary
eralizer regeneration, etc. for equipment inspection
(4) Repairs and major maintenance during
2. A Remote Inspection System
the refueling and maintenance outage.
During the normal operation, inspection Based on the analysis of inspection job
and maintenance are the major works in the performed by an operator in patrol, a remote
reactor building as shown in Fig. 1. Figure * Ozenji, Tama-ku, Kawasaki-shi.
-66-
Vol. 13, No. 8 (Aug. 1976) SHORT NoTE
inspection system was planned<'l as shown in
Fig. 3. The conception proposed here is
based on the teleoperation, the very early
stage of the robotic approach. A fully auto-
nomous robot is desirable, however, it requires
much developmental works and must be too
costly at present. The remote inspection due
to teleoperation will match enough the re-
quirement of reducing occupational radiation
exposure.
Process computer
Operation guidanc
(Data processing.
Operator's console
Display of data and
instructions,
[ Operation of the
l and has six degrees of freedom, right-left and
remote station.
Remote station
l
Sensi ng of ]
equipment status
and environments.
Fig. 3 Functional block diagram of
a remote inspection system
The remote inspection system consists of
a process computer, an operator's console and
a remote station. The first two may be in-
stalled at the main control room of a plant.
The remote station equipped with sensors for
inspection patrols in a reactor building under
the teleoperation by the operator in the main
control room. The process computer assists
the operator at the console with the function
of both operation guidance and data process-
ing. Components constituting the remote
station, and their brief specifications were
decided as follows.
( 1) Sensors
Five kinds of sensors are installed, r.e., a
temperature sensor, a vibration pickup, a
microphone, two TV cameras and an ioniza-
tion chamber. The first four of five kinds
-67-
(M. Fujii et al.) 463
are expected, with which human senses of
touch, hearing and sight can be replaced.
Sense of smell is also employed by a human
inspector, but not realized in this system.
However most of the overheated equipments
which have been picked up by the sense of
smell are expected to be checked off by a
temperature sensor and/or a TV camera.
( 2) Manipulator
The manipulator transfers the sensors of
temperature and vibration from point to point
on the surface of the equipment under in-
spection. It is driven by electric servo motors
up-down turning and in-out for the arm, and
swing, revolution and in-out for the hand.
The temperature and vibration sensors are
attached to the hand of the manipulator. The
position of the hand is fed back to the oper-
ator at the console through a stereoscopic
television, which consists of two TV cameras
and corresponding two TV monitors screened
with crossed polarizing filters<•J< 5 l.
( 3 ) Transmitter and Receiver
Control signal from the operator's console
and sensed data to the computer and the
operator's console are transmitted through a
coaxial cable. The capacity of multiplexing
transmission line is two channels for TV
image, and 27 and 21 channels for analog and
digital signals, respectively.
( 4) Vehicle
The wheeled vehicle is powered with a
battery and the autonomous running is avail-
able along the inspection route under the
control of a photoelectric guiding system<'l.
The photoelectric guiding method needs photo-
electric sensors on the vehicle and a light
reflecting guide tape on the floor. The com-
bination of the wheels and photoelectric guid-
ing system means economical locomotion, of
which the installation work is less necessary
than of the other means such as a mechani-
cal guiding system using a rail, an electro-
magnetic one using a cable inbedded along
the running route.
Another feature of the vehicle is its small
size. The remote station has to enter a high
radiation area through a narrow path with
sharp corners, then it must be small enough
464 SIIORT NoTE (M. Fujii et al.; T. Yoshida et al.)
to be able to pass a route with a radius of
gyration less than 80 em.
The remote inspection system proposed
has a few difficulties to be overcome, such
as a small vehicle, teleoperation using a
stereoscopic television, which must await ex-
perimental works.
The authors would like to thank the op-
eration staff of Fukushima Nuclear Power
Station, Tokyo Electric Power Co. for their
suggestive comments on this work. They
are also indebted to Mr. M. Serizawa, Mr. I.
Sumida and Mr. Y. Mizuno of Hitachi, Ltd.
for their guidance and assistance throughout
the course of this work.
Journal of NucLEAR SCIENCE and TECHI\'OLOGY, 13[8], pp.
SHORT NOTE
Numerical Study on Applicability
of Benoist's Diffusion Coefficient
to Sodium Void Reactivity Analysis*
Tadashi YOSHIDA and Shungo II]IMA'
NA/G Nuclear Research Laboratory,
Nippon Atomic Industry Group Co., Ltd.**
Received October 6, 197 5
Revised March 29, 1976
KEYWORDS: sodium, diffusion, voids,
reactivity, comparative evaluations,
accuracy, numerical solution, trans-
port theory
Theoretical prediction of sodium void re-
activity in large fast reactors is recognized
as a very complex problem since it depends
sensitively on the details of calculational
method, the way of preparation of effective
group cross sections and the uncertainty in
-68-
]. Nucl. Sci. Techno!.,
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R.L.: Presented at the IAEA Symposium on
Experience from Operating and Fueling of
Nuclear Power Plants, Vienna, Austria (1972).
121 TAKAHASIII, H.: OHM, (in Japanese), 58[8],
113 (1971).
131 KIMURA, T., FuKUZAKI, T., FuJII, M.: Pre-
print 1974 Fall Meeting AES], C 27, (1974).
141 NoDA, M., et al.: ]. Inst. TV Engrs., (in Jap-
anese), 25[5], 408~418 (1971).
151 DROGE, K.M., KLEIJ'\\L'\CHTER, H.: Presented
at the 2nd Conference on Industrial Robot
Technology, Univ. of Birmingham, U.K., D2,
(1974).
l6i Yo!'IEKURA, S., et al.: Hitachi Hyoron, (in Jap-
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464~467 (August 1976).
basic nuclear data. This is particularly true
for void in central part of core. On the other
hand, in case of large void volume or void
in peripheral part of core, the effect of neu-
tron leakage becomes predominant over other
complex factors. The theoretical calculation
then becomes comparatively easier and more
reliable than in case of void in central core
part. However, there arise other factors in-
fluencing the accuracy of calculation in this
case.
Recently, we performed a series of anal-
ysis studies0 > of sodium void worth in Mozart
experiments, including the comparison with
the results of UK calculationc 2>. Through this
study, we have arrived at a qualitative con-
clusion that the most important factors affect-
ing the accuracy of calculation of peripheral
void worth were the calculation of the diffu-
sion coefficients and the effect of transport
theory in calculating the reactor eigenvalue.
As a matter of fact, Benoist's diffusion coeffi-
cient, which is widely used for the analysis
* This work was performed under contract be-
tween Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel De-
velopment Corporation and Tokyo Shibaura
Electric Co., Ltd.
•• Ukishima-cho, Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki-shi.