Wood handed contract to bring space tech to nuclear decommissioning
20 Feb 2018
The Government has awarded energy services firm Wood Group funding worth around £1.5 million to make nuclear decommissioning safer, faster and more cost-effective.
Wood was one of five businesses to receive funding via the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. The others, Barrnon, Createc, Cavendish Nuclear, and Nuvia, were also awarded around £1.5m.
Wood Group said it would improve safety in the nuclear industry by applying new technologies developed in space exploration, car production and medicine.
According to a statement from the company, it will combine data and control systems with state-of-the-art robotics to design a demonstrator system for cleaning and dismantling highly radioactive rooms at Sellafield nuclear facility in Cumbria.
The technologies used in Wood’s project include novel material handling solutions to reduce the risks of working at height, mixed reality headsets, and a multi-fingered gripper allowing robots to grasp different objects.
The company, founded by oil and gas industry veteran Ian Wood, will also utilise a navigation system designed for missions to Mars that enables autonomous mapping where human access is impossible.
Bob MacDonald, CEO of Wood’s Specialist Technical Solutions business, said: “Our innovative proposal for a fully remote solution removes the operator from a hazardous environment and is adaptable enough to tackle different tasks, many of which present unique challenges.”
Information regarding each project can be found here.
