Going Where No Man Can Go

摘要

This paper discusses the successful remote visual inspection of a contaminated air exhaust tunnel running beneath the Savannah River Site's H-Canyon nuclear material separations facility. The air exhaust tunnel has been in operation since the 1950's, and the portion of the tunnel inspected has not been seen or accessed since startup. Numerous challenges were overcome in the deployment of the vehicle, including an initial 10-ft drop, travelling a long distance through harsh environmental conditions, surviving and recovering from a second vertical drop, turning 90 degrees, and subsequently travelling further. Video of the entire inspection was transmitted back to a control station, and the vehicle was abandoned in place for possible future use.