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Diversification and the common ground
Craig Piercycpiercy@ans.org
Who would have thought, just a few years ago, that we would see so many long-standing barriers to new nuclear development falling like dominoes? Public opinion, policy, regulatory reform, finance and investment, design maturity, nuclear fuel enrichment, and fuel fabrication capacity have all advanced with remarkable speed in the United States.
Conventional wisdom holds that the most effective way to scale up the nuclear supply chain is to do so strategically, matching investments to the needs of reactor developers.
Byung Wook Kim, Hyunsang Cho, Juan Wachs, Richard M. Voyles
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 199 | Number 8 | August 2025 | Pages 1310-1324
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2024.2423539
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
High-consequence materials, such as nuclear waste, pose significant risks if improperly handled. Gloveboxes provide a controlled environment to manage these materials safely, yet they present challenges in operator safety, efficiency, and ergonomics. This paper addresses these challenges by presenting a proof-of-concept framework for Semi-Autonomous Robot Teleportation for Nuclear Glovebox Processing (SART-NGP). Unlike the existing manual systems already in use at nuclear facilities, the SART-NGP framework incorporates adjustable autonomy capabilities, drawing inspiration from advancements in surgical robotics. By integrating high-level human inputs, semi-autonomous execution, robust feedback mechanisms, and a simulator-based interface, this framework significantly enhances safety and efficiency while alleviating ergonomic concerns associated with glovebox processing in nuclear facilities. Although we have not fully solved the challenges associated with nuclear glovebox processing, our research provides promising insights and methodologies that may significantly improve the management of high-consequence materials and augments existing efforts in self-driving labs for glovebox operations. The findings suggest that the SART-NGP framework holds substantial potential for enhancing glovebox processing in nuclear facilities, with future work focusing on its real-world implementation and evaluation.