On January 23, 2023, Flyability announced a major milestone: the Elios 3 drone successfully conducted a 3D scan of a radioactive waste storage vault built in the 1960s. This mission, which took place in late November 2022 at the Idaho National Laboratory, marked the first time a drone had ever been flown inside such a high-radiation environment. The data collected will play a key role in planning the safe removal of radioactive material from the site. The operation was carried out at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center, where a team of about 50 individuals worked together to prepare for the flight. A plastic tent was erected over the vault to comply with FAA and Department of Energy regulations, while a crane was used to lift the heavy lid and hatch. The mission was highly risky—once the drone was inside, it could not be retrieved if something went wrong. Despite the challenging conditions, the Elios 3 performed exceptionally well. In just seven minutes, it captured all the LiDAR data needed to create a detailed 3D map of the vault. A GeoSLAM expert was on-site to process the data in real-time, ensuring that the final model met the project’s requirements. "The Elios 3 was able to collect all the data we needed despite the high radiation levels," said Kevin Young, a principal electrical engineer at IEC. "This was essential for moving the project forward safely. It was a huge success." The vault contained calcine, a type of high-level radioactive waste that had been stored in large stainless-steel bins since the 1960s. These bins were never meant to be removed, making the task of retrieving the waste extremely complex. IEC had developed a remote retrieval system involving drilling, welding, and robotic cutting, but without accurate maps, they couldn’t plan the operation effectively. After evaluating several options—including an articulating arm and a helium blimp—IEC chose the Elios 3. The drone was tested under extreme radiation conditions, exposed to up to 10,000 Roentgen per hour, and a full-scale replica of the vault was built for pilot training. Although the first two flights were successful, the third one encountered an issue. The drone became stuck on a piece of angle iron after its payload caused it to lose altitude. Despite this, it managed to transmit a radiation reading of 7 Gy/h before the battery died. Experts later confirmed that the drone posed no risk to safety or the integrity of the bin. Now that the vault has been mapped, the next step is to begin removing the calcine. IEC plans to start this year, with six vaults containing a total of 4,400 cubic meters of radioactive waste to be addressed. This mission highlights the growing importance of drones in hazardous environments. With its ability to access confined spaces and gather critical data, the Elios 3 is proving to be a game-changer in industries like nuclear cleanup, infrastructure inspection, and more.
PP/PE pipe extrusion production line
1. Diameter: 16-1200mm,
Process
material Hopper Dryer and Auto charger → PE pipe extruder → marking line extruder → Mould → Calibrator → vacuum calibration tank → spray cooling water tank → printer → haul-off → cutter → pipe discharging rack
Features
1. Equipped with single or twin screw extruder, it can fulfill the need of processing PVC, PP, PE, ABS, PMMA et cetera.
5. Cutter adopts professional designed saw blade, controlled by PLC, smooth flat cut. Pe Pipe Making Machine,Pp Pipe Making Machine,Pe Pipe Manufacturing Machine,Pp Pipe Manufacturing Machine KonRun Intelligent Machinery(Ningbo) Co., Ltd. , https://www.konrunmachine.com
2. Output: 150-850kg/h,
3. Extrusion speed: 0.1-15m/min,
4. Installed power: 85-600kw
2. 3-Dimension adjustable vacuum calibrating unit, optimized vacuun swith, flow switch, multiple choice of dies.
3. Optimized designed tooling, precise fabricated, high quality material.
4. Dynamic balance haul-off, frequency conversion/AC speeding, stable running, convenient operation.
6. Optimized length counter and dust collector configuration.