this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2024
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How radioactive is the robot afterwards?
That kinda depends on exactly what it is removed and how. Being exposed to radiation doesn't make you radioactive. Ingesting radioactive particles will kinda make you radioactive until those particles reach their end of life and fission. I would be surprised if the robot is actually radioactive once it is done, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out that the structural integrity of the robot has been compromised due to exposure to radiation.
Source: former Navy Nuclear Power Program Electronics Technician Instructor.
Good question
Be really interested to know what it's made out of. Had a coworker who used to work in forgings and did some stuff that got sent to nuclear plants, they said that they had really strict requirements on material compositions, specifically needed to ensure that the (think it was steel, may have been something else) material had basically no traces of cobalt in it because the cobalt would becomes radioactive over the service life.
There are several factors to consider when choosing materials in a nuclear plant. For things that aren’t in direct proximity to the reactor core, neutron activation (becoming radioactive) is less of a concern. Aluminum produces hydrogen gas when exposed to boric acid, which presents an explosion risk. Certain chemical compounds can cause corrosion to plant equipment, even a Sharpie marker could corrode a valve or pipe and cause issues over the 50 year life span of a plant.
That's really interesting about Sharpies, I would have never known that about Sharpies.
Edit: I accidentally the word "never" above.
Depends heavily on the kind (and intensity) of radiation. Beta (electron/positron) and gamma (photon) generally won't, but neutron and alpha can. Many of the atoms that become radioactive will rapidly decay, and that's one of the mechanisms behind the impact to structural integrity.
Shortly after I returned to the States from Fukushima (a little bit after the disaster), I was taking an emergency response course on radioactivity. Everybody there got to use a Geiger counter on themselves and their belongings and various things in the room. The only thing that set it off was the purse I had brought back with me.
Anecdotal, obviously, and it wasn't highly radioactive, but I did get rid of the purse.
More relevant is how much damage the radiation will do to the circuit boards. There's some really small circuitry in there and those energetic particles are going to do some damage every time they smack into stuff.
Itself, not very, but any dust or flakes that land on it definitely will be. It only takes very small particles.
Usually, equipment like that is abandoned in place. Radiation has weakened its parts, and decontamination is complex and time-consuming for something you can't just hose and scrub down.
We're just gonna set up a vat of molten metal and send it out Terminator 2 style. /s
Let's just say, you wouldn't want to stand near it.