![]() The shielding walls are constructed like a Russian stacking doll, with between four and five walls of increasing size that can be added or removed as necessary based on the maximum source activity of the irradiators. It is designed to be assembled and shipped in multiple pieces, which are created with maximum shipping weights in mind. At the demo, members of the Source Recovery team could see inside the mobile hot cell.Īs Kenney described it, the hot cell’s mobility is more like a carnival than a recreational vehicle. While standards for safely recovering and handling radioactive sources are strict in the United States, many other countries do not apply the same rigor. ORS leaders hope to use this tool to reduce global radiological threats by providing tools and expertise to help international partners improve radioactive source end-of-life management. This mobile hot cell project began about two years ago, with the goal of fabricating a first-of-its-kind mobile source recovery tool, or hot cell. However, this hot cell will enable our program to take these efforts internationally.” Why a mobile hot cell? “We’ve already been doing domestic removals. “Our job is to recover used, abandoned and unwanted radioactive sources,” said Kevin Kenney, the relationship manager for INL’s Radioactive Source Recovery Project. The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Radiological Security (ORS) has funded INL’s efforts to develop a mobile hot cell. Safe removal of used radioactive sources requires new techniques and fabricated containers, which expand secure transportation opportunities. If these radioactive sources were to fall into the wrong hands, they could be used in a radiological dispersal device (dirty bomb) or in other acts of terrorism. “Having access to a proper disposal method could be a game-changer for many of these facilities and their staff.” What is source recovery?Īcross the world, radiological materials play an important role in medical research and commercial facilities. “In some of the areas where we plan to use this mobile hot cell, radioactive sources are just left on the shelf once they’ve been spent, where they are extremely vulnerable to theft and producing harmful emissions,” said Kathy McBride, the project manager for INL’s Radioactive Source Recovery Project. The robotic and mobile nature of the hot cell is poised to improve economics, employee safety and national security. The team was observing the first demonstration of a mobile hot cell that could fundamentally change how a certain class of radioactive materials is handled. The mobile hot cell can be controlled and monitored from the outside, behind plenty of shielding. When the arms move, a wave of excited energy in the room at Idaho National Laboratory conveys how this simple action may alter the future of international radioactive source removal and disposal. A crowd gathers around a black wooden box that resembles a short refrigerator, waiting for the motion of a pair of robotic arms sitting just outside the box.
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