Recipient organisationUnited Kingdom Atomic Energy AuthoritySource-published name: United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority
Funding£4.0M
PeriodNov 2020 — Mar 2024
In plain English
AI plain-English summary
A four-year international programme is building a digital twin—a virtual replica—to control slender robotic arms that will dismantle hazardous nuclear sites over decades, from Sellafield to Fukushima. The problem is that nuclear decommissioning and fusion reactor design require people to work inside large, shielded spaces filled with dangerous material. Currently, operators must be physically present or rely on limited remote controls. The shift to fully remote operations demands reliable equipment, skilled operators, and new organisational strategies—all of which this programme aims to develop. If successful, LongOps will create a suite of integrated software tools that let operators interact with either the real world or a simulation of it. This digital twin will reduce risk, improve training, and manage long-term remote tasks across three use cases: UK decommissioning, Japan’s Fukushima clean-up, and the design of the first remotely operated fusion reactors. The work is funded equally by UKRI, the NDA, and TEPCO, and is led by UKAEA’s RACE facility in partnership with Sellafield, industry, and academia. The outcome could transform how hazardous nuclear environments are handled safely and cost-effectively for decades to come.
View original technical description
LongOps is a 4 year programme of R&D that brings together three nuclear operations use cases: decommissioning in the UK, decommissioning of the Fukushima Dai-ichi reactors in Japan and the design of the first remotely operated fusion reactors. LongOps is a unique international collaboration funded equally by UKRI, the NDA and TEPCO (Japan). RACE will lead LongOps delivery working closely with the NDA Group (led by Sellafield Ltd), TEPCO, industry and academia. The three nuclear end users have a need to develop solutions to conduct work over many decades inside large, shielded spaces which contain hazardous material using remotely controlled ‘long reach’ slender robotics. Hence: LONG Term OPerationS - LONG Reach Manipulators. In recent years robotics hardware and software has progressed to the point where remote operations are increasingly feasible and cost effective. The widespread uptake of robotics is dependent on a managed transition from working ‘hands-on’ to ‘person-in-the-loop’. This process is dependent on the availability of reliable equipment, suitably qualified and experienced operators, organisational infrastructure and leadership strategy. A number of these key themes will be further explored and developed with the Robotics and AI Collaboration (RAICo), which includes NDA, Sellafield, UKAEA's RACE, University of Manchester and the National Nuclear Laboratory. The common thread that unites the LongOps use cases is an aspiration to use the Next Generation of Digital Twin to develop strategy, decrease risk, deliver training and manage long term remote operations for a range of tasks in a range of nuclear environments. The LongOps Digital Twin will be a collection of integrated software tools that enable interaction with either the real world or a simulation of the real world that is designed to assist remote operations.
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