Agreement on design of robots to spur clean-up at Chornobyl (02/23/97)

Agreement on design of robots to spur clean-up at Chornobyl

WASHINGTON - The U.S.-Ukraine Foundation on January 16 hosted an official signing ceremony for an agreement between the University of California's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Pittsburgh's RedZone Robotics Inc. to advance the design of a prototype Ukrainian robot, subsequent versions of which could be used for clean-up in high-radiation areas such as the Chornobyl nuclear plant's reactor No. 4.

The agreement is one of a series of agreements managed by LLNL for the Department of Energy (DOE), known as Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADA), that are designed to facilitate technology exchanges. In this case, the collaborative effort will include the American commercial firm RedZone and a consortium of several Ukrainian scientific and engineering institutes.

Present at the signing ceremony were Nadia McConnell, president of the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation (USUF); Carol Kessler, senior coordinator for nuclear safety at the U.S. Department of State; John Hnatio, program manager of the International Proliferation Program at the U.S. Department of Energy; Dr. Victor Los, counselor in science and technology cooperation at the Embassy of Ukraine; Robert Barker, director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; J. Todd Simonds, president of RedZone Robotics Inc.; Maynard Holliday, principal investigator, Chornobyl Telerobotic Dismantling System, also from LLNL.

Representatives from the offices of Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Rep. William J. Coyne (D-Pa.) also attended.

Under the yearlong agreement, the partners will contribute resources to the design of a new type of robotic prototype - small, agile, mobile and modular enough to work effectively in confined spaces, such as Chornobyl's reactor No. 4, and similar sites around the world. Subsequent versions of the prototype could provide vital new information about conditions inside the damaged reactor. Its various tools - including a "water knife" cutting mechanism - could facilitate the ultimate removal and packaging of the radioactive fuel, much of which is embedded in solid lava-like masses formed when the reactor core melted.

USUF was invited to host the signing ceremony due to its longstanding interest in facilitating economic and political reform in Ukraine, and promoting cooperation between U.S. and Ukrainian partners, and especially in light of its new Chornobyl 2000 initiative, whose aim is to help make Ukraine energy independent and Chorno-byl-free by the year 2000 through an informational campaign in the G-7 countries.

The April 26, 1986, explosion at reactor No. 4 immediately claimed more than 30 lives and exposed millions of people to the hazards of nuclear radiation. To curtail further radiation releases, the damaged reactor building was hastily covered with a concrete and steel sarcophagus. Today, that sarcophagus is in such a fragile state that an earthquake or further deterioration could trigger additional releases of radioactive dust.

The international community agrees that conditions at reactor No. 4 need to be remedied and stabilized as soon as possible, and that power production at the Chornobyl facility should be stopped. However, the Ukrainian government, coping with economic difficulties and energy shortages, has neither the technological nor the economic resources needed.

Ukraine has agreed to shut down the Chornobyl site by the year 2000, provided that the Group of 7 industrialized states support and subsidize the decommissioning and clean-up activities.

The agreement signed at the USUF offices is an important U.S. offering toward that end. It advances multiple U.S. objectives as well, among which are providing various forms of relief to the people of Ukraine and addressing increasing worldwide needs for effective nuclear accident response, facility dismantling and clean-up capabilities.

While the new agreement will result in a single new robotic prototype, it is envisioned that multiple robots, each with its own set of tasks, ultimately will participate in the permanent clean-up of Chornobyl, stabilize the ruined structure, and remove and safely package for disposal the radioactive material that remains.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory conducts research important to national goals. Current programs include national defense, energy, biomedicine and the environment. The laboratory's expertise includes the development of complex technologies in international settings.

RedZone Robotics Inc., the project's commercialization partner, is a highly experienced technology transfer agent, working with government agencies to develop new technologies and then move them into the open market, where their benefits can be widely disseminated. The numerous systems developed to date by RedZone perform remote decontamination, dismantlement, inspection, transport and other work in both military and industrial applications.

* * *

For more information about the activities of the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation, write to: 1511 K Street NW, Suite 1100, Washington, DC 20005 (telephone: 202-347-4264; fax: 202-347-4267; e-mail: [email protected]).

| Home Page |