Carnegie Mellon University researchers can be proud. Their full-scale, robotic asbestos eater known as BOA will be field tested in Oak Ridge, Tennessee during late June or early July. Since 1993, CMU researchers have been building and testing BOA to shred, remove, and bag insulation from pipes. The research is being funded through the Federal Energy Technology Center’s University Programs in Morgantown, West Virginia. FETC funnels research dollars from DOE’s Office of Science and Technology to university researchers to discover better ways to decontaminate and decommission DOE facilities. During D&D of DOE facilities, asbestos insulation from process and steam pipes must be removed and disposed of. Removal by hand exposes workers to carcinogenic asbestos fibers and hazardous and radioactive contaminants. As a remotely controlled robot, BOA offers a cost-effective and safe alternative to human removal of asbestos-containing material. In December 1994 during culmination of the project’s Phase I, CMU demonstrated a proof-of-concept BOA prototype that removed fiberglass insulation at a rate of 4 feet per hour. During Phase II, CMU researchers have been making design improvements to the robotic head and locomotion system and have conducted a regulatory analysis, a market study, and a cost/benefit analysis. In late October 1996, CMU demonstrated its new, improved BOA on a test-pipe run at its facilities. BOA crawled along the pipe, cut through lagging (strapping material that holds the insulation onto the pipe) and insulation, wet the removed material to flush it through a waste disposal hose, encapsulated the stripped pipe with sealant, and bagged the removed insulation. Because BOA controls loose asbestos fibers during cutting, flushing, and bagging, complete containment-area setup is unnecessary. During the test run, BOA processed pipes clad with CalSil (an asbestos simulant), wires, painted plaster tape, aluminum sheathing and bands, and sheet-metal screws. BOA demonstrated that automated insulation removal on a 4-inch-diameter pipe is feasible with abatement rates of up to 30 feet per hour using only two operators. The system can also meet all federally mandated air-quality, safety, and operational guidelines set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for fiber-count levels during abatement. As a result of the market study CMU conducted in Phase II, BOA has been positioned to meet needs in both DOE and industrial markets. BOA is being targeted for larger facilities where clearances exist for the robot to work and at facilities where glove boxes are currently being used to abate 4- to 8-inch-diameter pipes. CMU estimates that this narrowly defined DOE market is 0.5 million linear feet of pipe, and the corresponding industrial market is 1.5 million linear feet a year. CMU calculated cost savings based on comparative abatement rates. Comparing BOA’s potential abatement rate of 30 feet per hour to DOE’s rate of 3 feet per hour using manual removal, CMU estimated that DOE could save $10 million to $15 million by using BOA for D&D work. BOA will also help DOE realize savings through a reduced workforce for asbestos abatement, insurance savings, overall worker safety, and reduced potential of litigation. BOA’s abatement head consists of cylindrical housing for the cutters and a locomotor for inching BOA along pipes. The locomotor’s set of three clamps lock BOA into place. As the clamps work together on a track, BOA moves along. A set of three endmill/water-jet cutters, housed inside a cylinder, encircle the pipe. As BOA moves along, the cutters rotate around the pipe making circumferential cuts that slice and dice lagging and insulation into 2-inch chunks. Water jets force the material from the pipe. An encapsulant system wets the removed sections to trap any loose fibers. A 1,000-cfm HEPA-vacuum system forces the removed material and cutter wastewater through a waste hose, which leads the material to an off-board water separation unit. Water is recycled for cutting, and the removed insulation and lagging is led to the cyclone bagger. The next big event in BOA’s life is its full-scale field test at Oak Ridge’s K-25 Site during late June or early July. Hagen Schempf, principal investigator on the BOA project, said he wants the demonstration to capture enough good cost data on BOA to promote its favorable comparison with manual asbestos abatement, which is estimated to cost $100 per linear foot. Schempf hopes BOA’s superior performance and cost data gathered during the field test will result in OST’s publishing an Innovative Technology Summary Report, or green book, on BOA. The field test could also lead to BOA’s being used for follow-on work at Oak Ridge’s Y-12 Plant. For more information about BOA, contact Hagen Schempf at Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, (412) 268-6884, hagen@frc2.frc.ri.cmu.edu. Vijendra Kothari, DOE project manager on the BOA project, can be reached at FETC, 3610 Collins Ferry Road, Morgantown, WV 26507-8880, (304) 285-4579, vkotha@fetc.doe.gov.