Researchers build Wi-Fi chip that can operate inside a nuclear reactor — receiver uses special materials and design to withstand high doses of radiation for at least six months

Nuclear reactor.

A team of researchers from the Institute of Science Tokyo unveiled a hardened wireless receiver that can withstand prolonged exposure to radiation at the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco, California, last February. According to the IEEE Spectrum, this chip was primarily designed to allow robots to work in contaminated areas for decommissioning nuclear reactors. Regular silicon-based semiconductors used for wireless communication are susceptible to interference from nuclear radiation, meaning robots are limited by the physical cable needed to control them.

This became apparent during the cleanup at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which suffered from a meltdown after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami knocked out the plant’s backup energy sources required for cooling it. The robots tasked to clean up the contaminated areas required LAN cables to communicate with their operators, leading to tangled wires and making the operation more complicated than it already is.