Robots for nuclear facility

Shibanuma, Kiyoshi

Fusion energy will be a strong candidate as a resource in the future energy. For realization of the fusion reactor, International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) will be constructed in France under the international collaboration of Japan, EU, US, RF, China, Korea and India. The in-vessel of the ITER is activated due to neutron because the fusion energy is produced by a nuclear reaction in the same manner of fission. In the maintenance of in-vessel components, a robot is therefore required instead of human due to high radiation in the reator. Based on the above background, JAEA is under development of a maintenance robot for ITER in-vessel components. In addition, a rescue robot has been developed as a basis in order to apply to the accidents such as critical accident in the JCO. In the present paper, the outline and features of two kinds of representative nuclear robots are described.