SIZE REDUCTION | WASTE MANAGEMENT Robotic size reduction solutions are already deployed at
Sellafield Ltd. For example, the Skip Size Reduction Facility (SSRF), developed in collaboration with AtkinsRéalis, uses Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) robotic arms to automatically size reduce and repackage legacy Magnox fuel skips, enabling two skips to be placed within a third. Using two Fanuc industrial robots for laser cutting and remote handling, the facility has successfully processed more than 50 skips to date. The system will prove the concept of size reduction and liquor removal of large contact handleable intermediate-level waste items. Yet, developing effective robotic solutions is rarely
straightforward, particularly if there are unique needs due to the situation or waste. Existing tools and technologies are rarely suitable ‘off the shelf’ meaning new or customised solutions must be developed for the nuclear decommissioning environment. This is a major focus for the Robotics and AI
Collaboration (RAICo)—a partnership between the UK Atomic Energy Authority, the NDA, Sellafield, the University of Manchester and AWE Nuclear Security Technologies— which is accelerating the development and deployment of robotics and AI to address complex challenges in nuclear decommissioning and fusion engineering. Examples of the scale and complexity of size reduction
challenges faced across the nuclear decommissioning sector include reducing the size of legacy gloveboxes, which must be cut up for packaging into 200-litre drums. This is a significant issue for nuclear decommissioning throughout the industry. For example, AWE Nuclear Security Technologies’ Aldermaston site alone has hundreds of gloveboxes in scope for decommissioning, with similar needs also present at Sellafield and other sites. At AWE Nuclear Security Technologies, gloveboxes are
currently decontaminated and size reduced manually inside a modular containment system (MCS) by human operators in PBAS with electrically powered hand tools. The process involves post-operation clean-out, repeated decontamination using peelable paint, dismantling of internals, size reduction of the primary structure and sanding of contaminated base plates. Decommissioning one glovebox is resource-intensive and slow, taking around six to nine months, with the risk to operators of working with power tools at height and the chance of contamination. The proposed robotic glovebox decommissioning
station would overcome many of these challenges by providing a mobile industrial robot platform able to carry out the cutting tasks currently done by humans through a commercial off-the-shelf automated tool change system. An opportunity has also been identified to incorporate decontamination technology into the station to further reduce the volume of intermediate-level waste (ILW). These technologies could include surface removal techniques such as sanding, media blasting, laser ablation, milling or focused size reduction to remove localised contamination. The bespoke nature of glovebox decommissioning
would require an operator in the loop to control the decommissioning station. The suggestion is that this could be enabled through teleoperation utilising a camera system, enhanced by digital simulation, offline programming and path planning technology to improve the efficiency of operating the robotic system remotely. When developed, the benefits of the system could be
significant, with estimates suggesting it could reduce PBAS-dependent activity by 50%, translating into an equivalent cost saving of £480,000 ($643,000) per glovebox for a six-month operation, while removing many of the risks to human operators. The robotic solution is also intended to expedite glovebox decommissioning by reducing dependency on constrained PBAS teams and allowing multiple operations to take place simultaneously.
Removing the surface of contaminated bricks Size reduction can also involve shaving away material. Some bulky items—such as walls—are only contaminated at the internal surface layer. Shaving that layer off vastly reduces the amount of waste that needs disposing of. This is the case at the ageing plutonium processing plant at Sellafield, where only approximately 5mm of the internal wall surface needs to be managed as plutonium- contaminated material (PCM). Removing and disposing of this top layer is key to
avoid too much building material being classified and stored as PCM potentially creating a waste volume and storage problem and the need for additional waste infrastructure. Without segregation, the whole building would generate 3,000 to 4,000 PCM drums of brick waste, but if the contaminated bricks are decontaminated in situ by shaving approximately 5mm to10mm from the surface, this drops to 90 to 120 drums. While ‘shaving’ tools already exist for the concrete
walls of spent fuel ponds such as scabbling, lasers and water jets, a customised solution is required for the processing plant’s brick construction, which is aged and with potential structural issues. Any removal process must apply the minimum force and vibration necessary to avoid structural damage so the contaminated surface layer can be captured and packaged as PCM, while leaving the remaining building fabric suitable for management as low active waste.
www.neimagazine.com | October 2026 | 43
Graphite moderated reactors such as the UK’s fleet of AGRs present an opportunity for robotic solutions to size reduction. Source: NDA.
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