Officials from the USA have visited the Sellafield Engineering Centre of Excellence in West Cumbria.
The centre hosted the visit to showcase how an off-site innovation and solutions base can solve challenges at Nuclear Decommissioning Authority sites across the UK.
Visitors from the US Department of Energy were given a tour of the centre at Cleator Moor as part of a reciprocal knowledge sharing exercise hosted by the Office For Nuclear Regulation.
The US delegation were shown how teams at the centre of excellence are using a range of technologies including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), virtual reality (VR), and 3D printing to carry out tasks on Sellafield site and to train engineers before they deliver the solution in a nuclear environment.
During the visit, quadruped robot dog Spot patrolled the centre, capturing and relaying live data to operator’s screens, to demonstrate how robots can also be programmed to carry out business as usual on site monitoring or security tasks round-the-clock.
Other solutions shared on the tour, such as drones and ROVs carrying out surveys of difficult to reach areas were said to have saved millions of pounds on site and accelerated decommissioning by several years, while also protecting people by removing the need to send humans in air-fed suits into hazardous environments.
Paul Dicks, director of regulation, Sellafield decommissioning fuel and waste, said: “This visit was arranged to provide the US Department of Energy an overview and understanding of the hazards and risks associated with the Sellafield site and to explain the regulatory approach adopted by the ONR.
“We have been able to share information on joint regulatory challenges and explore opportunities in relation to future work activities to foster improvements in the regulation and delivery of decommissioning.”
The US visitors were told how solutions being delivered at the Cleator Moor centre were not only deployed at Sellafield, but also at other NDA sites such as Trawsfynydd in Wales and Dounreay in Scotland.
Craig Branney, Sellafield Ltd’s head of off site developments, who hosted the visitors on a walking tour of the centre of excellence, said: “When it comes to nuclear clean-up around the world, we are all part of the same nuclear family.
“It’s important we share with, and learn from, the international community and we were delighted to be given the opportunity to show our visitors from the US Department of Energy what we do here.
“We have an open door here at the centre of excellence and we want to share and collaborate and learn, whether that’s with international partners, the supply chain, or the local community. We hope visits like this lead to more knowledge sharing in the future.”
The visitors were also told how the centre’s outreach teams take their technology into schools and colleges to demonstrate to young people what engineering can achieve and inspire them about future careers.
Garrett Smith, US Department of Energy director of nuclear safety, said: “The innovation that we have seen here today is incredible. I love the model and the way they also reach out to the community and involve young minds.
“If anyone from the US Department of Energy were to come over here in the future I would want them to see this facility.”
