The Trawsfynydd site in North Wales. (Photo: Magnox Ltd.)
The United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Cwmni Egino to support the development of a small-scale nuclear project in North Wales.
A robot called Lyra was used to survey an underground radioactive ventilation duct in Dounreay’s redundant laboratories. (Photo: NDA)
Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd. (DSRL) and the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence in Nuclear (RAIN) Hub, a consortium of universities led by the University of Manchester, are working together on the development of robots capable of accessing areas that are inaccessible or unsafe for humans to work in. The robots will be used to inspect and characterize Dounreay’s laboratories, buildings, and structures as the United Kingdom prepares to decontaminate and decommission the nuclear site.
Hunterston B’s pile cap and fueling machine. (Photo: EDF)
The U.K. government and EDF have agreed to improved arrangements for the decommissioning of Britain’s seven advanced gas-cooled reactor nuclear power plants, which are due to reach the end of their operational lives this decade.