Our Sellafield - May 2021

Updates Evolve Finance News May 2021 Our Sellafield 12 Get active Technological innovation and inventive firsts. These have shaped the nuclear industry across the world. NEWS In the early days, these were focused on national defence and power generation. But now, our programme of active demonstrators is continuing this tradition in the field of nuclear decommissioning and waste management. The programme (part of our land-based robotics) offers our supply chain, research and development organisations and academia the chance to test out new technology and remediation techniques in an active environment. It builds on the work started in 2016 with the first active demonstrators, such as the eye-catching laser snake. We take a lead and learn approach to delivering site clean-up and decommissioning. This means that we’re keen to do all that we can to support the development of technology which will aid the development of our mission. We test it in an active environment like the one in which it will be used. Our active demonstrators look at addressing a big challenge on the horizon, especially where we know we don’t have the required capability. While lots of the demonstrators are about trialling new tech, the ethos is about delivering a decommissioning mindset. We want to address the challenges we face, more quickly, with minimal human involvement. We encourage innovators to think outside the box, and we look to flex processes to be more efficient and effective. Chris Hope leads on our Remediation active demonstrators and land-based robotics. He said: “The active demonstrator programme recognises that robotics and artificial intelligence has a significant role to play in remediation of the site. There are massive opportunities to learn from other industries and adopt technologies used elsewhere. “We know that it’s often easier to develop an idea off site than on it. Our programme looks to break down these barriers, so we can identify and test new technology and processes that will make our decommissioning and clean up job safer, faster and better value for the UK taxpayer.