CLEANDEM - A cyber physicaL equipment for unmanned nuclear decommissioning measurements

Overview & Synopsis

Human resources are still needed for operations conducted in the dismantling steps, over a wide range of radiological conditions, from the harsh initial conditions to final decommissioning. How can D&D operations be improved in terms of Operators Exposure to radiations, Time and Cost effectiveness, and Traceability? Can a single platform successfully operate in all phases of D&D operations? Can it achieve a faster and more accurate data collection to ease and accelerate the clean-up process? These are the challenges addressed by the three years EU-funded CLEANDEM project (Horizon 2020 Euratom NFRP call), led by CEA List. Eleven leading actors from four European countries nuclear industry and research, have joined their expertise and efforts in the pan-European CLEANDEM consortium to develop a mobile unmanned ground platform (UGV), equipped with upgraded highly-mature detection technologies for radiological measurements. The presented work is the two years achievement to address these needs, through: • Improvement of low-cost sensors for rapid neutron/gamma and distributed dose rate mapping, neutron/gamma detection and identification, and air and surface contamination monitoring. • Development of the unmanned platform, for remote and autonomous operations, and risks of contamination reduction and radiation hardening. • The continuously updated Digital Twin containing all available radiological information. The real in-situ conditions based on the scenarios defined by end-users test shall also be presented.