Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) has created the first robotic complex in Russia for inspecting pipelines and communications of radiation-hazardous facilities. As TASS reported in the university's press service, the prototype has already passed laboratory tests and is preparing for verification at the TPU research nuclear reactor. Foreign analogues exist, but they are larger and designed only for inspecting large objects.
The problem that the complex solves is the lack of technologies for reliable assessment of the condition of internal pipe walls and the level of residual radioactive contamination. The length and complex piping of communications exclude external measurement, and the high radiation background does not allow a specialist to approach the object.
The robot is equipped with a dosimeter and a gamma-ray spectrometer, capable of video recording and transmitting data to the operator. The key engineering feature is a universal chassis adapted for movement on surfaces of various cross-sections and shapes: round, rectangular, inclined. It is this chassis that allows measuring modules to be inserted into pipes of various diameters.
More than 80% of the complex's components are domestically produced. Artem Zhuykov, an engineer at the Regional Center for Certification, Control and Diagnostics, explained that the scientific novelty lies precisely in the approach with a universal chassis, on which any modules for visual and spectrometric scanning can be installed. Enterprises in the nuclear industry are already interested in the development.
For decommissioning NPPs, such a robot is not a replacement for a human, but the only possible way to look into those parts of communications where personnel will never get.
