Deployment of laser cutting head with wall climbing robot for nuclear decommissioning

Decommissioning of nuclear structures requires cost effective remotely operated automated cutting techniques. Cutting with solid-state lasers employing optical fibre delivery of laser power in the multi-kilowatt range and with high focus ability of the beam offers the capability of a single laser source to address more than one type of process application. The high value asset, which is the laser itself, can be situated and maintained in a safe clean area, remote from the cutting, thus allowing the system to be reused for several other decommissioning applications. The problem then is to deploy the cutting head on the remote structure. This paper describes a 5kW laser cutting system deployed by a permanent magnet adhesion wall climbing robot developed to carry the payload comprising of the laser cutting head weighing 19 kg, optical fibre cables supplying power and control signals. Steel plates up to 40 mm thickness can be cut at speeds of 50 mm/min while 10 mm thick plates can be cut at greater speeds of 800 mm/min.