UKAEA robotic snake shows laser-welding capabilities in pipework
A new laser-welding ‘robotic snake’ developed by the UK Atomic Energy Authority has shown it can operate inside of fusion energy powerplant pipework.
The £2.7m, seven-year project by UKAEA’s RACE (Remote Applications in Challenging Environments) was delivered as part of EUROfusion’s DEMO programme, the successor to ITER.
Deployed and operated remotely, the DEMO snake can be put to work in 80mm diameter pipes that are packed together with little space for access.
Tristan Tremethick, lead mechanical design engineer, UKAEA, explained that the pipes are cooling pipes for fusion machines which extract the fusion energy to generate electricity.
“They are high pressure, high temperature pipes which are key to the operation of plants such as STEP (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production) the UK’s first prototype fusion powerplant, or Europe’s DEMO.”
The project involved creating an ultrasonic sensor-system to move the snake up and down the pipe to identify each precise working location. Tremethick explained that the robot senses distance travelled and thickness of the pipes. This information is used in combination to work out where the robot is in the pipe to verify its location.
Register now to continue reading
Thanks for visiting The Engineer. You’ve now reached your monthly limit of news stories. Register for free to unlock unlimited access to all of our news coverage, as well as premium content including opinion, in-depth features and special reports.
Benefits of registering
-
In-depth insights and coverage of key emerging trends
-
Unrestricted access to special reports throughout the year
-
Daily technology news delivered straight to your inbox
Experts speculate over cause of Iberian power outages
The EU and UK will be moving towards using Grid Forming inverters with Energy Storage that has an inherent ability to act as a source of Infinite...