NDA Research and Development update

£8.5 million competition projects gearing up to test new robotic technologies  

As the £8.5 million Integrated Innovation in Nuclear Decommissioning competition heads into the final stages, NDA Head of Technology Melanie Brownridge invites the 5 collaborative projects to contribute blog posts outlining their work. The competition, funded by the NDA and government partners, aims to inspire the development of new technologies that can tackle challenges in some of Sellafield's most radioactive hotspots.

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University projects will tackle some of our 
technical decommissioning difficulties

A series of new university-based research projects are now under way as part of a
£9.4 million initiative to tackle some of the technical challenges at the earliest UK nuclear sites and deal with the radioactive waste produced.

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Cleaning up nuclear waste is an obvious task for robots, according to The Economist

Designing robots for the tasks is difficult, as recent experience has shown at Fukushima where radiation caused equipment failures. Stopping such things happening again is part of the work of the National Centre for Nuclear Robotics (NCNR),  a collaborative effort involving several British universities aimed at improving the routine use of robotics in the nuclear industry.  Read more

Report outlines series of research case studies

The NDA's Direct Research Portfolio (DRP) accounted for approximately £5 million of the total £100 million R&D investment during 2017 to 2018. This report looks at projects funded and includes a series of individual case studies. Read more

Forward look for the next 5 years

The NDA 5-year R&D plan covers the period 2019 to 2024 and provides information about the research topics we propose to fund, and how these will enable strategy development, encourage innovation and maintain vital  technical skills. Read more