LaserSnake++

With the current nuclear liability of £117billion with -20%/+100% errors bars, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority needs a generic safer, faster, cheaper decommissioning toolkit for high hazard facilities. Remote decommissioning tools of the past have typically been expensive, bespoke and unreliable systems that have been quickly abandoned. With a focus on significantly reducing time and cost without compromising safety, demonstrable, reliable, and transferable technology is needed to tackle decommissioning challenges now and in the future. LaserSnake++ seeks to address this need by building on the ‘2016 NDA Innovation of Year’ award winning LaserSnake2 project which delivered a modular, flexible, size reduction tool – ‘LaserSnake’ and demonstrated size reduction of a 5 tonne, double skinned vessel in Sellafield's First Generation Reprocessing Plant. LaserSnake++ adds Createc, RACE and Masters of Pie to the core of the LaserSnake team, OC Robotics and TWI. The consortium has extensive, combined expertise in nuclear operations, robotics, size-reduction, nuclear characterisation and virtual and augmented reality tools which will be combined in LaserSnake++. LaserSnake++ will enhance existing visual and radiation mapping tools to construct a detailed augmented reality model of the cell. This will be used to to generate cutting and waste storage strategies based on time and cost optimisation within the constraints of acceptable risk. LaserSnake++ will deliver a scalable solution for faster, cheaper and safer decommissioning; developing an expandable toolkit, with a digital platform, to provide full end-to-end service which can be re-used and re-applied across multiple environments. These tools will enable continuous improvement in training, operations and management of complex decommissioning tasks.