Elios Drone Tested at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant

 

November 12, 2020—Flyability partnered with DroneUA to conduct a mission at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant with the goal of determining whether nuclear waste was present in one of the plant’s decommissioned reactors.

One year ago, Flyability pilots conducted a mission at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the site of the tragic disaster that took place in April of 1986.

A video taken by the Elios 2 flying inside Reactor Five (note: the Elios 2 has since been replaced by the next generation Elios 3 drone) 

At the time of the disaster, the fifth block of the Chornobyl Plant was under construction and nearing completion. Given the rush to leave, there was no record of whether the holding pools in Reactor Five had ever received the depleted uranium fuel bars for which they had been made.

Thirty-three years later, Chornobyl’s decommissioning team needed to know whether there was any nuclear waste within Reactor Five. To this end, the team wanted pilots from Flyability to conduct a mission within Reactor Five to determine, 1) Whether any nuclear fuel bars were present, and 2) Whether the primary equipment that would have been used in the reactor had ever been mounted.

The Elios drones are commonly used for inspections at nuclear power plants, where they can help improve safety and significantly reduce turnaround times (i.e., the amount of time the plant is shut down for inspection and maintenance purposes). However, this was the first time a Flyability drone was involved in efforts to decommission a nuclear power plant.

“The Chernobyl mission was stressful, because the wall we had to fly over was 70 meters [230 feet] high, so there was no way we could get the drone back if the signal was lost,” says Charles Rey, the Training Manager at Flyability and one of the mission’s leaders. “But the mission was a great success, and the people in charge at Chernobyl were very happy with the video and images we were able to collect inside Reactor Five.”

The Chornobyl decommissioning team had little experience with using drones to collect visual data remotely. The Elios 2 presented a unique tool for the work, since it sits inside a protective cage, allowing it to enter confined indoor spaces in order to collect visual data for inspection purposes.

Although the reactor is structurally sound, access to the areas within it where nuclear waste might have been stored was impossible because the entries were too high off the ground. To conduct the mission, Flyability pilots stood in the middle of the reactor, in a pit that was about 25 meters (82 feet) deep—a location that would have been inaccessible if the reactor was still active. 

Using the Elios 2, pilots were able to fly into Reactor Five and collect enough visual data to determine that the pools were empty and there was no nuclear waste present anywhere inside. 

These findings were significant, since no evidence that the holding pools were empty had ever been gathered before. Following the mission, the Chernobyl decommissioning team planned to include the visual evidence collected by the Elios 2 in a report submitted to international authorities regarding the status of the plant's reactors.

 

NB: This projects was compelted with the Elios 2 drone, which has since been replaced by the Elios 3 which has a modular design that enables it to carry modular payloads including the RAD dosimeter. The Elios 2 was discontinued in 2024. 

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About Flyability

Flyability is a Swiss company building solutions for the inspection and exploration of indoor, inaccessible, and confined spaces. By allowing drones to be used safely inside buildings, it enables industrial companies and inspection professionals to reduce downtime, inspection costs, and risks to workers. With hundreds of customers in over 50 countries in Power Generation, Oil & Gas, Chemicals, Maritime, Infrastructures & Utilities, and Public Safety, Flyability has pioneered and continues to lead the innovation in the commercial indoor drone space.

More information on www.flyability.com / @fly_ability

Contact: media@flyability.com, +41 21 311 55 00

 

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