Robotics R&D for legacy nuclear waste

摘要

The mission of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management (EM) is to address the environmental legacy of five decades of Cold War-era nuclear weapons production and government-sponsored nuclear energy research. This legacy includes some of the world's most dangerous radioactive sites, with large amounts of radioactive wastes, spent nuclear fuel, excess plutonium and uranium, thousands of contaminated facilities, and contaminated soil and groundwater. Created in 1989, EM has the responsibility for completing the cleanup of this Cold War legacy and managing the remaining nuclear materials. As the largest environmental cleanup program in the world, EM has been charged with cleaning up 107 sites across the country, the total square mileage of which is equal to that of Rhode Island and Delaware combined. EM has made substantial progress in nearly every area of nuclear waste cleanup and has completed cleanup at 91 of these sites[1].