Sellafield, based in Cumbria, has carried out its first live trial with an advanced new four-legged robot. This new robot is outfitted to swab surfaces in areas with radioactive material. This innovative new partnership develops safety planning with a new approach. It is intended to enhance decommissioning strategies at the facility, where hundreds of swabs are performed each day to meet the highest safety standards.
The robot is designed with a tall, long arm that holds a swabbing tool that resembles a giant yellow toothbrush. Its incredible maneuverability allows it to access dangerous locations unsafe for human operators. Its design imitates the action of swabbing that people do. This provides the perfect opportunity to embed continuous improvement into the already established safety culture at Sellafield.
Deon Bulman, Sellafield’s remotely operated vehicle equipment lead, emphasized the robot’s capabilities. He stated,
“Together, these capabilities support faster, safer, and more cost-effective decommissioning operations while pushing forward the adoption of advanced robotics in the nuclear sector.”
The trial follows a successful experiment at the Joint European Torus facility in Culham, Oxfordshire. There, researchers integrated most deeply in pursuit of commercial applications of fusion technology. This new establishment at Sellafield is intended to further improve safety. It will test if robotic technology can successfully monitor radiation levels in sensitive environments.
Sellafield’s health physics team conduct daily surface swabs to identify contamination and determine the best approaches for decommissioning work. Yet the addition of this kind of robot into their operations can simplify these processes to a great degree.
Dr. Kirsty Hewitson, director of RAICo, highlighted the broader implications of the trial, noting that the technology “could have an impact on both nuclear decommissioning and fusion engineering sites.” This viewpoint especially highlights the ways that robots are capable of revolutionizing work processes in the nuclear industry.
As Sellafield moves further down the path toward utilizing cutting-edge robotics technology, the facility stands ready to improve its operational safety and efficiency. Now, this innovative robotic system becomes a proven success story among such implementations. Beyond the technology developments, it demonstrates a significant step forward in modernizing operation for environments where safety challenges restrict personnel.