25 Nuclear Facility Robots Compared: What Radiation Tolerance Actually Limits You From Doing
A robot rated for routine inspection work will not survive a high dose decommissioning task, and the difference is not obvious from a glossy photo. See real radiation tolerance and capability data from 21 manufacturers before you plan a project timeline around the wrong unit. Whether you want to buy, hire or lease, every one of the 25 nuclear facility robots for sale below links straight to the manufacturer, with specifications pulled from their own site, not a reseller.
Key takeaways
- Total dose tolerance limits what a robot can do before it fails.
- Plan decontamination or disposal of the robot itself.
- Projects are justified per campaign.
Compare the top picks
| Model | Maker | At a glance | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mitsubishi Heavy Industries A-UT Machine | Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. | Weight: 400 kg in air, effectively neutral when submerged | Contact Mitsubishi Heavy Industries |
| Auto-SAS (Autonomous Sorting and Segregation System) | ARCTEC (AtkinsRealis and Createc joint venture) | System Type: Robotic manipulators + sensor-based waste characterization | Core Technology: 3D scanning hardware and software (ARCTEC) | Not disclosed (up to £9.5M NDA program investment over 4 years, not a per-unit price) |
| Foreign Object Removal System (FORS) | Diakont (now trading as Kinegge) | Weight: 13.2 lb in air, 1.1 lb in water | Contact Diakont/Kinegge for a quote; official pricing not published |
| FORERUNNER Steam Generator Inspection Robot | INETEC (developed), deployed by Framatome | Type: Mobile steam-generator tubesheet-walking robot | Tube reach: 200+ tubes per stance | Contact Framatome / INETEC for a quote; official pricing not published |
| A200 Articulated Remote Manipulator | NuVision Engineering, Inc. (NuVision-Walischmiller, a Carr's Group company) | Reach: Up to 2.1 m | Not publicly listed; contact NuVision Engineering for project and manipulator pricing |
Not sure which model fits your job, or want help with hire or lease terms? Email J2R with what you need done and your budget, and we will shortlist real options and help broker the deal.
Real case
Robots that did not come back
At Fukushima Daiichi several inspection robots failed in high radiation before completing their routes, while Toshiba's small underwater robot nicknamed Little Sunfish captured images of what appeared to be melted fuel in Unit 3 in 2017.
The lesson for buyers: Specify dose tolerance for the worst area, not the average.
Source: TEPCO and international coverage, 2017
Want a result like this? Tell us the task and budget and we will reply with real options, prices and lease terms.
How to choose
Nuclear facility robots handle remote inspection, cutting and decontamination in radiation environments too dangerous for people, a narrow, highly specialized category bought by nuclear operators, decommissioning contractors and government agencies.
Radiation tolerance rating
Check the manufacturer's stated radiation tolerance (often in total absorbed dose) against the actual environment you plan to deploy in, electronics degrade with cumulative exposure and a unit rated for routine inspection work will not survive a high dose decommissioning task.
Decontamination and reuse
Some units are designed to be decontaminated and reused, others are treated as consumable and disposed of after a mission in heavily contaminated areas. This materially affects total cost over a multi year decommissioning project, so clarify it before buying.
Site specific qualification
Nuclear sites typically require their own qualification and testing process for any new equipment before it can be used, regardless of the manufacturer's general certifications. Budget time for this site specific approval into your project timeline.
Buy, hire or lease
Given the specialized and often project specific nature of nuclear work, hire from a specialist contractor is common for one off decommissioning tasks. J2R can help connect you with manufacturers who support project based hire.
Before you buy
A nuclear robot will not pay for itself: run the numbers first
Nuclear robots are bought to reduce dose. The economic case rests on person-sieverts avoided, outage days saved and the cost of decontaminating or disposing of the robot itself after the job.
The most common mistake is comparing the price of the machine with the salary of one employee. A report prepared for the US National Institute of Standards and Technology found that a complete robotic system tends to cost three to four times the robot itself once integration is counted, and the money comes back only when the process around the robot changes. Start with the job and the number you want to move, not with the catalogue.
What you are really paying for
| Cost line | What to budget for |
|---|---|
| Radiation tolerance | Electronics have a total dose limit; a unit rated for inspection may fail on decommissioning tasks. |
| Site qualification | Licensee and regulator acceptance, procedures and mock-up testing. |
| Decontamination or disposal | Robots can become radioactive waste; plan reuse, cleaning or disposal cost. |
| Tooling | Manipulators, cutters, samplers and cameras for each task. |
| Training and mock-ups | Operators trained on full-scale mock-ups before entry. |
Measure this before you ask for a quote
- Collective dose for the task done by people today
- Outage days and cost per day
- Number of entries into high-dose areas per year
- Waste volume generated by current methods
- Schedule risk from manual tasks
When to walk away
- Dose rate exceeds the robot's rated total dose before task completion
- No plan for decontamination or disposal
- Site qualification would take longer than the campaign
Where the payback actually comes from
Value is dose reduction and schedule: fewer entries, shorter outages and safer decommissioning. Projects are often justified per campaign rather than per year.
Payback (years) = total investment ÷ annual net benefit
Total investment = equipment + integration, site work, tooling, training + output lost during start-up
Annual net benefit = savings you can prove − service, parts, energy, software and supervision
Total investment = equipment + integration, site work, tooling, training + output lost during start-up
Annual net benefit = savings you can prove − service, parts, energy, software and supervision
Six questions to put to every nuclear robot vendor
- Total dose rating and tested electronics lifetime?
- Experience at sites with my regulator?
- Decontamination design and reuse record?
- Tooling available for my task?
- Mock-up and training support?
- Recovery plan if the robot fails inside the area?
Quick payback calculator
Rough first pass only. Use the prices in the tables on this page, or real country prices from the J2R 100 Robot Price Index.
Enter the annual savings you can actually prove to see payback.
All 25 nuclear facility robots for sale in the catalog
| Model | Manufacturer | Country | At a glance | Price | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Auto-SAS (Autonomous Sorting and Segregation System) | ARCTEC (AtkinsRealis and Createc joint venture) | United Kingdom | System Type: Robotic manipulators + sensor-based waste characterization | Core Technology: 3D scanning hardware and software (ARCTEC) | Not disclosed (up to £9.5M NDA program investment over 4 years, not a per-unit price) | Visit manufacturer site → |
| Atommash Spider Robot (Automated Ultrasonic Weld Inspection System) | Atommash (Rosatom Machine-Building Division / AEM-Technology) | Russia | Inspection Method: Automated ultrasonic testing (non-destructive) | Weld Thickness Capability: Up to 30 centimeters | Not disclosed (internal manufacturing equipment, not sold externally) | Visit manufacturer site → |
| Clobot CROMS Wolseong Fleet | Clobot, with T-Robotics | South Korea | Fleet size: 7 robots across 6 mechanically distinct categories | Coordination: CROMS cloud-based platform routes real-time telemetry from all 7 machines to one integrated control room | Contact manufacturer | Visit manufacturer site → |
| Foreign Object Removal System (FORS) | Diakont (now trading as Kinegge) | USA | Weight: 13.2 lb in air, 1.1 lb in water | Contact Diakont/Kinegge for a quote; official pricing not published | Visit manufacturer site → |
| NanoMag | Eddyfi Technologies | Canada | Max Payload: 4.5 kg (10 lb) | Weight: 2.27 kg (5 lb) | Not disclosed | Visit manufacturer site → |
| Rescue Robot | Forth Engineering | United Kingdom | Range: Mobile command-and-control centre operates from up to 150 m (492 ft) from the rescue zone | Contact Forth Engineering for a quote; a per-unit cost of approximately GBP 500,000 has been cited in some industry reports but is not an officially published price | Visit manufacturer site → |
| AVEXIS Swimming Robot (Aqua Vehicle for Exploration and In-Situ Sensing) | Forth Engineering (developed with the University of Manchester) | United Kingdom (Maryport, Cumbria) | Access aperture: Designed to pass through openings as small as 150 mm (6 inches) | Deployment method: Dropped into a 1 m ullage gap to enter the water inside the silo compartment | Approximately 10,000-13,200 GBP/USD per unit as originally developed (2017); contact Forth Engineering for current pricing | Visit manufacturer site → |
| Framatome SUSI Robotized Submarine Inspection System | Framatome SA | France | Type: Submarine remote-controlled inspection tool (SUSI-Gen3 platform) | Application: RCS components, RPV, RPV head, pumps, pressurizers, piping | Contact Framatome for a quote; official pricing not published | Visit manufacturer site → |
| Framatome PELICAN Foreign Material Extraction Robot | Framatome SA | France | Type: Foreign-material retrieval robot | Application: Fuel assembly debris extraction | Contact Framatome for a quote; official pricing not published | Visit manufacturer site → |
| Charli | Framatome SA | France | Payload: Robotic arm carrying a laser cutting head | Not sold commercially; deployed exclusively by Framatome on its own decommissioning contracts | Visit manufacturer site → |
| FORERUNNER Steam Generator Inspection Robot | INETEC (developed), deployed by Framatome | Croatia / France | Type: Mobile steam-generator tubesheet-walking robot | Tube reach: 200+ tubes per stance | Contact Framatome / INETEC for a quote; official pricing not published | Visit manufacturer site → |
| Fukushima Daiichi Fuel Debris Retrieval Arm (22m Boom) | International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning (IRID), with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Veolia Nuclear Solutions | Japan | Weight: Approximately 4.6 tonnes | Degrees of Freedom: 18 | Not disclosed (government/utility decommissioning project, not commercially sold) | Visit manufacturer site → |
| ModuMan | James Fisher Nuclear Ltd (James Fisher and Sons plc) | Warrington, United Kingdom | Payload: Up to 100 kg | Reach: 2.3 m | Contact manufacturer | Visit manufacturer site → |
| KAERI Armstrong Dual-Arm Decommissioning Robot | Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), commercialized by Victex | South Korea (Daejeon) | Arms: Two dexterous arms, combined lift capacity up to 200 kg | Mobility: Caterpillar tracks for rough, rubble-strewn terrain | Commercialization licensed to Victex under a KRW 180 million (approximately $125,000) technology-transfer agreement plus 3% of sales revenue; contact Victex for deployment pricing | Visit manufacturer site → |
| KUKA KR 500 Fortec Nuclear Waste Handling Robotic Cell | KUKA Systems UK (KUKA AG) | United Kingdom (Sellafield, Cumbria) / Germany (Augsburg, manufacturer HQ) | Weight: Less than 3 tonnes per robot | Payload: Up to 500 kg | Contact KUKA Systems UK for a project quote; deployed as custom nuclear-decommissioning cells, not sold as an off-the-shelf unit | Visit manufacturer site → |
| Mitsubishi Heavy Industries MEISTeR - Dual-Arm Disaster Response Robot | Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. | Japan | Weight: 440 kg | N/A, purpose-built for TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi decommissioning, not sold commercially | Visit manufacturer site → |
| Mitsubishi Heavy Industries A-UT Machine | Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. | Kobe, Japan | Weight: 400 kg in air, effectively neutral when submerged | Contact Mitsubishi Heavy Industries | Visit manufacturer site → |
| A-UT Machine | Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. | Japan | Weight: 400 kg in air, neutral buoyancy underwater | Contact MHI Nuclear Energy Systems | Visit manufacturer site → |
| A200 Articulated Remote Manipulator | NuVision Engineering, Inc. (NuVision-Walischmiller, a Carr's Group company) | USA (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) | Reach: Up to 2.1 m | Not publicly listed; contact NuVision Engineering for project and manipulator pricing | Visit manufacturer site → |
| Sarcos Guardian GT Dual-Arm Force-Multiplying Robot | Originally Sarcos Technology and Robotics Corporation; the company rebranded to Palladyne AI Corp. in March 2024 | USA (Salt Lake City, Utah) | Payload: Up to 454 kg (1,000 lbs) combined, 227 kg (500 lbs) per arm | No longer commercially available; Sarcos suspended hardware commercialization in November 2023 and rebranded to Palladyne AI Corp. (software-focused) in March 2024 | Visit manufacturer site → |
| M6000 | PAR Systems, Inc. | USA | Design heritage: Original design delivered to the nuclear industry in the 1960s, in continuous production since | Lift capacity: 4,000 lb (1,800 kg) when mounted on a telescoping mast system | Contact PAR Systems | Visit manufacturer site → |
| Panther-XT Plus | Saab Seaeye (Saab AB) | United Kingdom / Sweden | Depth rating: 1,000 m (free swimming); 800 m with Type 8 Tether Management System | Thrusters: Ten 500V DC thrusters, eight horizontal and two vertical, optional third vertical thruster | Contact Saab Seaeye for quote | Visit manufacturer site → |
| Star Robotics Watchbot Terrain Nuclear Decommissioning Robot | Star Robotics S.L. | Spain (Madrid) | Sensors: Dual radiation sensors providing simultaneous readings on both sides of the robot's structure | Mobility: All-terrain, rugged frame; overcomes steps and uneven surfaces, indoor and outdoor | Contact Star Robotics for a project quote | Visit manufacturer site → |
| PipeINEER | UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), RACE Robotics Centre, developed for CERN | United Kingdom (Culham) / CERN, Switzerland-France border | Range: Up to 6 km per battery charge | Not sold commercially; built for CERN under a UKAEA-CERN collaboration | Visit manufacturer site → |
| Westinghouse T-Rex Track-Mounted Reactor Vessel Examination Robot | Westinghouse Electric Company (WesDyne division) | USA (Cranberry Township, PA) | Deployment: Track-mounted crawler system based on Westinghouse's ROSA (Remotely Operated Submersible Apparatus) examination platform | Inspection methods: Ultrasonic (UT), visual (VT), eddy current (ECT), replica molding (RMT), 3D surface measurement and dye penetrant (PT) | Contact Westinghouse for a quote; delivered as a contracted outage inspection service rather than sold as a standalone unit | Visit manufacturer site → |
Frequently asked questions
What is a nuclear facility robot?
Remote-controlled inspection, cutting and decontamination robots for reactor servicing and nuclear decommissioning
Are there nuclear facility robots for sale right now?
Yes. This page lists 25 nuclear facility robots from 21 manufacturers, most sold or ordered direct. A handful of specialist and defense oriented models are quote only or program based rather than an instant checkout, that is noted on the individual listing.
What is the best nuclear facility robot to start with?
There is no single best nuclear facility robot, it depends on the job. The comparison table above lines up 5 real options side by side, from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries A-UT Machine to A200 Articulated Remote Manipulator, so you can match specifications to your actual task instead of a marketing claim.
How much does a nuclear facility robot cost?
Almost no manufacturer in this category publishes a price online, this is quote based equipment priced to your project. Use the manufacturer link on each model below to request a real number instead of guessing from a brochure.
Can I rent or lease a nuclear facility robot instead of buying?
Some manufacturers in this category offer direct rental or lease terms. For the rest, J2R can help broker a short term hire or lease arrangement with the manufacturer or an approved reseller.
How long does a nuclear robot take to pay back?
Value is dose reduction and schedule: fewer entries, shorter outages and safer decommissioning. Projects are often justified per campaign rather than per year.
How is a nuclear robot usually sold?
Campaign contracts, purchase. Compare buy, lease and RaaS prices in the J2R 100 Robot Price Index.