As head of the Muelheim-Kaerlich nuclear reactor, Thomas Volmar spends his days plotting how to tear down his workplace. The best way to do that, he says, is to cut out humans.
About 200 nuclear reactors around the world will be shut down over the next quarter century, mostly in Europe, according to the International Energy Agency. That means a lot of work for the half a dozen companies that specialize in the massively complex and dangerous job of dismantling plants.
Those firms — including Areva, Rosatom's Nukem Technologies Engineering Services, and Toshiba's Westinghouse — are increasingly turning away from humans to do this work and instead deploying robots and other new technologies.
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