M2 on an easier day

A Sandia National Laboratories robot recently withstood enough radiation to kill 40 men in freeing a stuck radiation source — the size of a restaurant salt shaker — at a White Sands Missile Range lab so that the cylinder could be safely returned to its insulated base.

The robot, for its successful efforts, was unofficially dubbed M2 for the cartoon character “Mighty Mouse.”

The operation — carried out by the robot and a joint task force of White Sands and Sandia RAP (Radiation Assistance Program) team members — ended 21 days of warning lights flashing and horns blaring at the 3,000-square-foot Department of Defense lab in Southern New Mexico.

Alarms were blaring, warning lights flashing, and personnel were monitoring the stricken site around the clock in late October at the White Sands’ Gamma Irradiation Facility. The cause was a stuck cylinder the size of a restaurant salt shaker but considerably more deadly: Gamma rays from the cobalt-60 it contained could kill a man in half a minute. Its radiation field was too deadly for a human, even in a protective suit, to get near enough to free it.

The cylinder was used to irradiate circuit boards and vehicles to see how their electronic circuits, made smaller each year, stood up to radiation that would be present were a nuclear weapon detonated on or above U.S. soil.

Richard Stump, Sandia RAP leader, explained the problem to robotics manager Phil Bennett, who said his group had a robot that might do the job. The 600-pound, five-foot-long robot, which became unofficially known as M2, rolled on treads, could maneuver around obstacles, and had a long, multi-jointed gripper arm with the dexterity to reach into awkward places and apply force to drills and screwdrivers. It could remember positions, important in starting with tools at the right height and depth. It was intended as a bomb-disabling unit.

But radiation that can kill a human also can kill a robot’s electronics. Bennett estimated M2 could withstand intense radiation for only 50 minutes.

It’s a long and complex story. In the end, the robot and the humans won. It would make a hell of an episode on the Sci-Fi Channel.