NDA group launches £9.5m partnership to revolutionise nuclear waste management

The NDA are deploying robots to autonomously sort and segregate radioactive waste.

The NDA has committed to invest up to £9.5m in the project over four years, which is a collaboration with Nuclear Restoration Services (NRS), Sellafield Ltd and Nuclear Waste Services (NWS).

The project, Auto-SAS, will be delivered jointly by AtkinsRéalis and Createc, working in partnership as ARCTEC to combine their joint experience and track record of developing automated systems and robotics in nuclear.

Melanie Brownridge, NDA Chief R&D Officer, said: “This is a hugely exciting project for us, using robotics to autonomously sort and categorise waste and has the potential to save hundreds of millions of pounds in waste storage and disposal costs.

“It’s a great example of collaboration across the NDA group and supply chain to develop transformative solutions to decommissioning challenges which enable us to deliver our mission safely and efficiently.

“Our ambition is to use what we learn here to benefit multiple sites in the NDA group and potentially beyond.”

Manual segregation of radioactive waste is complex and hazardous due to the nature of the material, so caution is exercised and where waste is mixed it’s currently all categorised as Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) or Plutonium Contaminated Material (PCM) rather than being sorted by type or radioactivity.

Using robotics provides the ability to use technology to more accurately categorise the waste, avoiding using more costly waste routes when they aren’t required, while also removing people from hazardous environments and giving them the opportunity to develop new skills.

Energy Minister, Michael Shanks, said: “This cutting-edge partnership represents exactly the kind of innovation the UK needs to lead the world in safe, efficient nuclear decommissioning. It will put the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority at the forefront of using robotics to sort nuclear waste. Not only will this help protect and upskill workers, but by investing in technologies like this, we can ensure better value for taxpayers and potentially save hundreds of millions of pounds.”

Auto-SAS will be deployed on the NRS Oldbury site in South Gloucestershire initially and will be used to separate low level waste from intermediate level waste which has been retrieved from the vaults on site - created when the power station was operational.

Local MP Claire Young said: "It's good to see that once again Oldbury is helping lead the way in nuclear innovation. We know that decommissioning former sites is a long and costly process, so it's great to see new technology being harnessed to make this quicker and easier. I look forward to seeing the difference it makes as we continue on this process."

Andrew Forrest, NRS Chief Technical Officer, commented: “This collaboration brings a game changing opportunity to accelerate our waste management and help deliver the decommissioning mission sooner, safely and cost effectively. I know the Oldbury team is excited to be part of the project and be a centre of innovation for the NDA group.”   

The ARCTEC system will use a combination of sensors to categorise the waste before robotic manipulators grasp and consign waste items to the most appropriate waste route.

Robert Marwood, Head of Robotics and Technology for AtkinsRéalis said on behalf of ARCTEC: “This is an ambitious project with the potential to automate a time-consuming process and develop a scalable system that segregates hazardous materials safely and efficiently.

“AtkinsRéalis and Createc have a strong track record in developing and deploying advanced robotic systems in nuclear decommissioning. We are excited to be able to combine this expertise to collaborate and help the NDA achieve effective and optimised waste management for the UK’s legacy nuclear sites.”

The ambition is to transfer learning to support future deployments at other NDA group sites as part of a wider programme of work exploring how robotics can support nuclear decommissioning.

This includes RAICo, the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Collaboration, which brings together the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), Sellafield Ltd, the University of Manchester and AWE Nuclear Security Technologies. The collaboration is accelerating the deployment of robotics and AI in nuclear decommissioning and fusion engineering.

So far it has seen a number of decommissioning solutions deployed on NDA sites including CARMA II, a robotic system developed with support from Ice Nine Robotics, deployed at Sellafield in West Cumbria. It supports health physics personnel, using sensors to create ‘heat maps’ of radiation levels in facilities which require routine monitoring to meet regulatory requirements.

Other deployments include a snake robot at the Dounreay site in Scotland used to inspect and gather essential data from an area sealed for more than 40 years and a cutting-edge autonomous quadrupedal robot at the Trawsfynydd site in Wales used to autonomously gather critical data essential to the reactor’s dismantling project.

To find out more about Auto SAS and previous competitions on Autonomous sort and segregation of nuclear waste visit: Five UK companies have progressed through to the next phase of a £5.5 million radioactive waste segregation competition. - GOV.UK or watch: ISOSort - Sorting and Segregating Nuclear Waste. To find out more about RAICO visit: Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Collaboration | RAICo

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