AtkinsRéalis tests robots for nuclear waste sorting

Manual segregation of radioactive waste is complex and hazardous due to the nature of the material, so caution is exercised. Where waste is mixed, it is currently all categorised as intermediate-level waste or plutonium-contaminated material, rather than being sorted by type or radioactivity.

Robotic systems can more accurately categorise the waste, avoiding the use of more costly waste routes when they aren’t required, while also removing people from hazardous environments and allowing them to develop new skills, the NDA said.

At the NRS Oldbury site, Auto-SAS will be used to separate low-level waste from intermediate-level waste, which has been retrieved from the vaults on site. The system will use a combination of sensors to categorise the waste before robotic manipulators grasp and consign waste items to the most appropriate waste route.

The Auto-SAS project is being undertaken in two phases. Phase 1 runs from this month to August 2027 and will deliver a fully operational system in an inactive environment. Phase 2 will deliver an active demonstration of the system at Oldbury.

The ambition is to transfer learnings from this project to support future deployments at other NDA group sites, for example Sellafield.

Melanie Brownridge, NDA chief R&D officer, said: “This is a hugely exciting project for us, using robotics to autonomously sort and categorise waste, and has the potential to save hundreds of millions of pounds in waste storage and disposal costs.”