CONFERENCE REPORT | DECONTAMINATION & DECOMMISSIONING


Rav Chunilal, head of Robotics & Artificial Intelligence at Sellafield Ltd outlined the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s plan to achieve a “50% reduction in decommissioning activities carried out by humans in hazardous environments by 2030”


repository will be available for low-level waste. For category B (high and intermediate-level waste) such as activated metal or waste with long-lived radioisotopes there is ‘no policy in Belgium’ and it is currently in intermediate storage at sites. Berben concluded by saying that “due to the lack of clear evacuation routes for radioactive waste, planning and the execution of decommissioning is not an obvious task in Belgium.” He did however say that ENGIE is looking to mitigate this by splitting nuclear decommissioning activities from radioactive waste management, which means that dismantling can continue, with interim storage of waste on site pending availability of disposal solutions. This means that waste won’t become a ‘bottle-neck’ in the process. Echoing this and Kerr’s observations from the first


session, Kaisanlahti noted that waste generation, dismantling, cutting, characterisation, packing, intermediate storage, transport and disposal should be designed as “not to impact the time schedule”. Having an on-site diposal facility at the Loviisa site helps to mitigate this, he said. Ahlström, who is managing decommissioning at Ringhals highlighted the “cost challenge” being faced by the project. He identified the bulk decommissioning phase as the ‘biggest chunk of work’ and said that Vattenfall is aiming to ensure it has efficient processes in place on a small scale before execution. Also critical is ensuring waste management routes, in order to avoid any ‘bottle necks’ as well as the need to create interim storage on site. Finally, Ahlström said that Vattenfall is looking to build some flexibility into its programme so it can begin work on different work packages, should any delays occur. Organisational issues were also raised, with speakers noting that decommissioning will affect the number of personnel, the required skills and change attitudes of those working at the plant.


Innovations The final sessions of the event highlighted some of the innovative solutions that are being developed for nuclear decommissioning and radioactive waste management. Speakers from Sellafield highlighted how robotics and


artificial intelligence are supporting the decommissioning challenges on site and beyond. “We are not just looking at the challenges at the Sellafield site, but also across the NDA group’s UK sites. This is a growing field, we need to pick up the pace and embed this work into business as usual in a safe and secure manner,” said Chunilal. Sellafield Ltd already has a robotics framework in place,


which groups air-, land- and water-based robotics and AI, and a range of case studies were presented. Pete Allport, remote handling manager, engineering & maintenance, specialist equipment services, Sellafield Ltd, explained how drones supported both external and internal inspection of a stack on site. He also discussed efforts to develop beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) capabilities that will be utilised to conduct semi-autonomous inspection and survey missions in a routine manner. Chris Hope, capability


development manager, remediation, Sellafield Ltd, gave examples of technologies that have been used on site, including snake arm robots (eg LaserSnake back in 2017), ground-based ROVs (e.g. Curieosity developed with RED Engineering) and quadrupeds (the Boston Dynamic Spot, which was first demonstrated on site just a few weeks ago). Keith Pickup, legacy ponds ROV manager, described the fleet of remote operated vehicles used in the legacy ponds and silos for activities such as fuel consolidation, skip cleaning, sludge and floor clearance. Chris Ballard, robotics and AI manager introduced plans


for a Robotics and AI Collaboration (RAICo). Partners in the venture include the University of Manchester, Sellafield Ltd, UKAEA, the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) and the NDA. “The Robotics and AI Centre will enable us to collaborate with our partners on innovation and R&D in solving real challenges under one roof, bring together the work being done by robots across Sellafield and build on the opportunities they offer,” he said. On the nuclear waste treatment and characterisation


side, Ansaldo Nuclear explained how it is committed to the development and delivery of more effective solutions for nuclear decommissioning and radwaste management. Alan Beven gave an overview of the company’s activities in


European research and development projects including: ● INNO4GRAPH – development of a multi-joint manipulator for graphite blocks retrieval and handling.


● CLEANDEM – mechanical design and system integration of an unmanned ground vehicle for dismantling activities.


● PREDIS – development of a data handling, processing and fusion platform for pre-disposal storage.


Charles Mendes, key account manager, Ansaldo Nuclear, then discussed in detail a selection of innovative processes, including Wet oxidation (WOX), Phosphoric acid decontamination (PHADEC) and Iron-phosphate vitrification technology.


Helen Beddow from Nuvia also introduced a range of


characterisation and waste management solutions that can support land remediation. These include surface radiation mapping using the Groundhog detector, rapid screening technology for excavator buckets using a Gamma Excavation Monitor (GEM) and high-resolution gamma spectrometry. Beddow also presented a case study on remediation of the Harwell Liquid Effluent Treatment Plant (LETP) in the UK. Finally, Akira Ono, chief decommissioning officer at Tokyo


Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. shared an update on decommissioning progress at Fukushima Daiichi. His presentation also included a short video showing factory performance testing of a robotic arm that will be used for fuel debris removal from reactor 2 in 2022. ■


You can view the event on demand until 31 October, please register by scanning the QR code


www.neimagazine.com | October 2021 | 33


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