The Sellafield nuclear power plant in Cumbria has recently completed a promising demo. They recently put a state-of-the-art four-legged robot through its paces that can monitor radiation levels in high-risk environments. This project represents an important advancement in the adoption of cutting-edge robotics in the nuclear industry. Its primary objective is to increase the level of safety and efficiency while performing decommissioning operations.
Demonstration at the trial, the robot’s remarkable dexterity in executing mouth swabbing procedures. It worked in the locations deemed too hazardous for human operators to step into. The robot’s front view, showing the massive arm with which it holds its unusual yellow swabbing implement. It’s capable of replicating complex, high-fidelity swabbing tasks performed by Sellafield’s manual health physics team. This team conducts hundreds of swabs on various surfaces each day to gather essential data necessary for determining effective decommissioning strategies and upholding safety standards.
Though capable of autonomy, the four-legged robot is defined legally as a remotely operated vehicle. This classification gives operators the ability to very precisely control its movements and get immediate feedback. This type of capability is incredibly important. This gives the robot the ability to pilot through dangerous zones that would threaten human lives, reducing risk while performing radiation monitoring operations.
Sellafield is currently doing a version of a trial that recently worked well at the Joint European Torus facility in Culham, Oxfordshire. Throughout that test, robotics were critical to boosting operational safety when working with advancing fusion technology experiments. The lessons learned through these trials would hopefully improve practices not only within nuclear decommissioning efforts but on fusion engineering campuses.
Deon Bulman, the remotely operated vehicle equipment lead at Sellafield, emphasized the advantages of integrating such technology into their operations.
“Together, these capabilities support faster, safer, and more cost-effective decommissioning operations while pushing forward the adoption of advanced robotics in the nuclear sector.” – Deon Bulman
Dr. Kirsty Hewitson, director of RAICo, described the application and implications of this technology as “game-changing.” She added that the innovations would be more than transformational and transcend nuclear decommissioning and fusion engineering facilities.
