A robot dog will tell humans where it’s safe to go at a former nuclear plant.
“Spot” is on trial at the site – which is being decommissioned as part of a £3.2billion project – at Dounreay in Caithness.
To prepare for work at the facility, Spot was tested on a gridded fire escape. The robot carries out surveying work in contaminated areas where human entry is not possible.
Robotics firm Boston Dynamics, inventors of Spot, said: “It’s part of a site-wide programme to understand how the robot can become a valuable business-as-usual tool.”
Scientists are looking at ways to make greater use of robots in cleaning up and taking apart the most highly radioactive areas of Dounreay, near Thurso, and robots have previously been used to reach contaminated parts of the site.
Operator Dounreay Site Restoration Limited (DSRL) has been working with Robotics and Artificial Intelligence in Nuclear (Rain), a consortium of universities.
Led by Manchester University, they explored potential for using robots in the Fuel Cycle Area (FCA), which has the most contaminated parts of the site. Dounreay said they were generally also the “most inaccessible”.
Last year a robot completed a survey of a radioactive ventilation duct below a disused laboratory at Dounreay.
The robot, called Lyra, surveyed the duct with tools including radiation probes and cameras.
It also used Lidar – a detection system similar to radar which uses lasers – and took swabs using a manipulator arm.
The decommissioning of Dounreay is recognised as one of Europe’s most complex nuclear closure programmes. The work is being delivered by DSRL, a subsidiary of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
Buildings to be demolished include the distinctive dome-shaped Dounreay Fast Reactor, (DFR) built in the 50s when there was a worldwide shortage of uranium for electricity generation.
Its core was surrounded by a blanket of natural uranium elements that, when exposed to the effects of the radiation, would “breed” to create a new fuel, plutonium.
After the reactor closed in 1977, most of the core fuel was removed.
The sphere is expected to be removed by about 2026. There were plans to retain it and proposals included replacing it with a hotel and a nightclub.
Historic Scotland had considered listing the building so it would be conserved.
But because the structure is contaminated with low levels of radioactivity, it was decided to demolish it.
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