Robotic dog trial at Sellafield paves way for remote site operations

AtkinsRéalis has been working with Sellafield Ltd’s remote technology group to deploy a customised Boston Dynamics Spot quadrupedal robotic ‘dog’ on site, working alongside employees to inspect areas, capture data and carry out tasks in hazardous areas.

The trial established highly secure networks and tested the ability to remotely operate robotics like Spot on site from outside the site license boundary.

In the months leading to the trial AtkinsRéalis worked with Sellafield Ltd’s remote technology group to establish the digital and cyber protocols that enabled safe and secure operation.

Pete Allport, head of remote technology at Sellafield, operated Spot from AtkinsRéalis’ immersive room in nearby Whitehaven, live-streaming footage from a non-critical area on the site.

AtkinsRéalis said it deploys this kind of virtual access for major construction projects to record and view footage across sophisticated and secure networks for teams across different locations, adding that it brings about time and cost savings by allowing off-site specialists to view data and make decisions to inform and speed up complex operations.  

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In a statement, Richard Brook, technology solutions lead for decommissioning at AtkinsRéalis, said: “Sellafield Ltd has pioneered the adoption of technology across its operations, and this latest milestone is another step forward for the role of robotics in decommissioning. Virtual site access is already being used in the delivery of major infrastructure programmes: this trial is a big step towards unlocking its benefits for nuclear licensed sites without compromising safety or security.” 

Sellafield Ltd is part of the NDA (Nuclear Decommissioning Authority) group, which is responsible for decommissioning 17 of the earliest nuclear sites across the UK. The NDA group is utilising technology to transform how nuclear decommissioning is delivered and this latest approach could be applied across other nuclear licensed sites.

Formerly a nuclear waste reprocessing plant, Sellafield is now focused on the storage of spent nuclear fuel and the decommissioning and clean up of its facilities.