The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) recently organised a workshop jointly with Sellafield Ltd
The workshop aimed to identify practices and policies supporting cutting-edge technologies that can improve safety and efficiency. Viridian was invited to provide a presentation to include feedback on development challenges and lessons learned on how to innovate in the nuclear back-end.
Entitled The Role of Innovation in the Nuclear Back-End: Harnessing Robotics and Advanced Technologies for Safer, More Efficient Activities, the event was held in Cumbria, and brought together local and international experts to explore the transformative potential of emerging technologies for back-end nuclear operations. The workshop had a dedicated session on Characterisation and Sampling, chaired by Cynthia Barr, who is also Chair of the WPTES working group. Kym gave a talk entitled 'Laser sampling in support of radiological, chemical and asbestos characterisation'.
The workshop was a joint initiative of the NEA Expert Group on the Application of Robotics and Remote Systems in the Nuclear Back-End (EGRRS) and the Working Party on Technical, Environmental and Safety Aspects of Decommissioning and Legacy Management (WPTES), who collaborated to develop a programme reflecting their shared interests.
The NEA Working Party on Technical, Environmental and Safety Aspects of Decommissioning and Legacy Management (WPTES) aims to address technical, environmental and safety issues in the decommissioning of nuclear installations and legacy management. To address the broad scope of cross-cutting issues, the WPTES incorporates areas such as risk impacts (worker, public, environment safety), sampling and characterisation, decontamination and decommissioning technologies, decommissioning waste streams/roots, post operational clean-out, and innovative techniques (e.g. robotics, digitalisation, etc.).