Anemone Technology Developments and Latest Applications

AUTHORS
Loic Collinet, Thaddeus Zuber
Orano DS

PRESENTING
March 11, 2025 - Entire white paper will be posted here
Waste Management Symposia

ABSTRACT
Orano engineering has developed the patented Anemone, a universal recovery and sampling tool with a wide variety of applications for restricted environments. The Anemone fulfills the role of a universal gripper perfectly, replacing many existing tools thanks to its design that is adaptable to any type of targeted solid and operational environment.

In the nuclear field, recovering materials or objects can be challenging due to environmental constraints such as high levels of radioactivity or work being completed in restricted access areas. This is prevalent in dismantling, operational, or maintenance activities as the need often arises to obtain solid samples or recover solid materials and items that come in a wide range of shapes, densities, and sizes.

Choosing the right tool for the collection operation is essential. The tool must be adapted to the materials to be grabbed (geometries, weights, variable sizes), be able to operate in various environments (in air, underwater, in mud, etc.), meet the characteristics of the sampling zone (irradiated area, restricted access area, etc.), and occasionally fulfill the role of a containment vessel. Up to this point, meeting all of these technical needs simultaneously has often required combining multiple tools or even developing a suitable tool customized for each worksite. Anemone has been thoroughly tested and has proven its capabilities in field work to meet all of these needs.

The innovative Anemone tool design is simple, robust, and very efficient, and inspired by the “sea anemone” marine animal. Orano’s Anemone consists of a rigid body and a flexible head equipped with tentacles, allowing it to be used in different environments and/or surfaces for recovering various objects or materials. The Anemone is manufactured using 3D printing, which enables producing versions adapted to specific needs, for example altering the size, shape, or number of tentacles. Adaptations are quick to implement thanks to the adaptable design and quick, easy manufacturing. The possibilities for tool configuration are inherently very flexible, all at a reasonable cost.

For recovery operations, the head of the Anemone tool is placed on the targeted object or material. As the head steadily retracts (controlled using pneumatic or electric power), the moving tentacles securely grip the object for transport and safe release in another location. The Anemone can be used with carbon poles ranging several tens of meters or operated using a remotely controlled arm to move materials or objects within a hot cell. The tool has been designed considering nuclear industry standards and dismantling activities to support As Low As Reasonably Achievable (ALARA) activities.

Orano has already used the Anemone in a tank at its La Hague used fuel reprocessing site to extract graphite samples from solid waste coming from processed Uranium Naturel Graphite Gaz (UNGG) reactor fuel. The Anemone system has also been adapted for use at the Fukushima-Daiichi site in Japan, moderately modified to meet the needs of the working environment. In both cases, the conditions were extreme in terms of irradiation level and the Anemone tool performed well. This equipment is robust and well-suited for nuclear energy operational requirements.

In addition, Anemone’s utilization extends beyond the nuclear field to other industries as well. In the naval sector, shipyard customers are interested in using the Anemone tool to retrieve objects from submerged areas. Robotic companies are exploring options for equipping their mobile robots with an onboard Anemone. Other companies are evaluating the feasibility of attaching an Anemone to the end of a multi-axis robotic arm for an increased variety of controlled remote operations.

As a universal recovery and sampling tool, the Anemone is a proven, innovative asset in a variety of nuclear, commercial, and federal applications.

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