VEOLIA NUCLEAR SOLUTIONS | ADVERTORIAL FEATURE
Left: Dexter’s digital twin in the Retiina system
Left: VNS robotic arm for Fukushima investigation
can be difficult to operate, let alone in a damaged nuclear reactor. That’s why VNS also included the Retiina™
digital
solution, which includes VNS proprietary control software and interface as well as TreeC’s VR4Robots®
digital twin, to
operate the robotic system in a planned, controlled and intuitive manner. This digital tool suite enabled VNS not only to plan and record operations before the machine was complete, but also to train the future operators in the exact details of the operating environment they would face at Fukushima.
The addition of VNS’s Dexter™ system, a force feedback
manipulator, allows intuitive operations of all the configuration, import and maintenance tasks required, enabling operators to focus on the task to be accomplished rather than operating a machine. By analysing the challenges faced and understanding
which tasks require human capabilities, and which benefit from technological augmentation, VNS was able to create a system tailored specifically to the problem at hand. The result? A unique pairing of human and machine teaming that harnesses the rapid advances in robotic control and digital twin technologies to allow experienced hazardous waste practitioners to successfully do their jobs more efficiently and safely. That’s not the only area where technology is simplifying the solutions to complex problems. The long-term stabilization and disposition of hazardous waste has been an evergreen challenge for the nuclear waste industry for decades, but technology – specifically vitrification technologies – is allowing operators to rethink how they can approach site remediation and waste disposal. Veolia Nuclear Solutions’ GeoMelt®
technology has
forged a pathway for this new approach. Commercially proven and allowing for the simultaneous processing of
a range of radioactive, inorganic and organic waste, and reactive metals, GeoMelt provides scalability, flexibility and scalability, reducing life-cycle costs and reducing worker risk by minimizing handling of waste. Technology can help make the complex simple. In the
nuclear waste industry, that increasingly means designing and implementing technologies to improve project efficiencies, keep workers out of harm’s way, and create improved pathways to success. VNS continuously studies the application and integration of emerging technologies toward this vision. One of the latest steps is the integration of quickly expanding AI technologies to new systems in innovative ways. For example, VNS has been awarded a Innovate UK grant to develop a first prototype of a human-machine teaming system for nuclear waste sorting, using AI for automation of the bulk of the task and leveraging the unmatched human skills and decision making when required for the most difficult and critical tasks.
VNS will be exploring these topics and how to harness
technology when approaching the most complex hazardous waste challenges in an upcoming webinar. To join us or to speak to some of the VNS nuclear waste experts, please contact
nuclearsolutions.comm@
veolia.com ■
Simon Delavalle, Chief Technical Officer, Veolia Nuclear Solutions, UK E:
simon.delavalle@
veolia.com
www.neimagazine.com | February 2022 | 19
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