The first contract in the new LongOps international programme for robotics in nuclear decommissioning and fusion has been awarded.
Veolia Nuclear Solutions UK and Wälischmiller Engineering will receive a share of £3m in funding from the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) to supply robotic manipulator arms to the RACE research facility.
The funding stems from the £12m UK-Japanese robotics deal for fusion energy and nuclear decommissioning research, called LongOps, announced in January.
LongOps aims to support the delivery of faster and safer decommissioning at the Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima Dai-ichi site in Japan and at Sellafield in the UK.
Veolia Nuclear Solutions and Wälischmiller Engineering will each provide a twin-arm haptic manipulator, a form of kinaesthetic communications technology, complete with electrical and control systems. The solutions are designed to deliver key aspects of the LongOps project.
The manipulators will also be used by UKAEA to train operators based at both Sellafield and Fukushima.
You can see Sellafield’s chief technology officer Duncan Steel speak about the use of robotics for safe nuclear decommissioning live at this summer’s Robotics & Innovation Conference! Click here to find out more!
