A government facility in Piketon, Ohio produced enriched uranium between 1954 and 2001 for both energy and weapons-grade purposes. Several years ago, the Department of Energy (DOE) and a third-party contractor, Fluor-BWXT, began decommissioning the plant.

But now a new set of "hands" is being brought in to speed up the work. Well, not hands exactly, but a radiation sensor and a pair of flexible tracks. A small pipe-crawling robot named RadPiper will be unleashed in 15 of the 75 miles of pipes that were once used to make enriched uranium through a gaseous diffusion process

According to a press release from Carnegie Mellon, each one-foot segment of pipe needs to have radiation measurements taken to rule out any potentially hazardous amounts of uranium-235 still left over in the pipes. If RadPiper discovers a hazardous section of pipe, it has to be removed and decontaminated. Clean sections of piping can remain in place and will be demolished with the rest of the building.

Fluor-BWXT has already decommissioned one of the three process warehouses on the Ohio site, which contain 75 miles of piping all together. The first process warehouse demolition took the company three years to finish, not least because humans (wearing protective gear) had to measure each foot-long segment of the pipes for elevated levels of uranium-235 from the outside of the pipes. The humans took 1.4 million measurements to thoroughly assess the first process warehouse. RadPiper should expedite the process significantly and cut down on potentially harmful exposure to humans. Another benefit: RadPiper's measurements are more accurate since they will be taken from inside the pipes.

The university is seeking a patent for the sensor on top of RadPiper, which uses a sodium iodide sensor to count gamma rays and two disc-shaped blinders that prevent the sensor from measuring radiation beyond the one-foot section of pipe that the bot is measuring.

RadPiper was funded by $1.4 million from the DOE, which worked closely with Carnegie Mellon University and Fluor-BWXT to build a prototype and test it on a quick-turnaround schedule. Now, the DOE expects that RadPiper will save labor costs by an eight-to-one ratio.

"DOE officials estimate the robots could save tens of millions of dollars in completing the characterization of uranium deposits at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, and save perhaps $50 million at a similar uranium enrichment plant in Paducah, Kentucky," Carnegie Mellon wrote.

RadPiper and a second robot of the same name will be able to crawl through 30- and 42-inch-diameter pipes to take its measurements. In some sections of the piping, humans will still be required to take measurements from outside the pipes. But this little robot is equipped with a fisheye lens and a lidar sensor to take corners and identify obstructions in the pipe ahead. "After completing a run of pipe, the robot automatically returns to its launch point," Carnegie Mellon said.