Competition seeks innovations to sort and segregate radioactive waste

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and Innovate UK are calling on companies to come up with new ideas and innovative approaches to the challenge, which could include the use of robotics, sensors, artificial intelligence, and autonomous systems.

UK to tackle nuclear waste with robots and AI

NDA said the Sort and Segregate Nuclear Waste competition is open to any interested organisations to form consortia and develop a plan to address the challenge. It involves work at Sellafield and several Magnox nuclear reactor sites.

In a statement, Sara Huntingdon, the NDA’s Head of Innovation, said: “Dealing with waste is a huge ongoing challenge for us as we progress our mission to decommission nuclear sites. We want people to be creative and help us develop new and innovative solutions. We welcome technologies from all sectors - organisations don’t have to have nuclear experience - just great ideas and a passion for turning those into a reality.”