Call for ideas to sort and segregate radioactive waste

A competition is underway to find new approaches for sorting and segregating radioactive waste at some of the UK’s oldest nuclear sites.

The £3.9mln contest is a collaboration between the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), including Sellafield Ltd and Magnox Ltd, and Innovate UK. Companies are invited to come up with new ideas and innovative approaches to find solutions.

The potential technologies could include robotics, sensors, artificial intelligence and autonomous systems. The competition is open to all organisations, even those who don’t have nuclear experience, to form consortia and develop a plan to address the challenge.

‘Dealing with waste is a huge ongoing challenge for us as we progress our mission to decommission nuclear sites,’ says Sara Huntingdon, Head of Innovation at NDA. ‘We want people to be creative and help us develop new and innovative solutions. We welcome technologies from all sectors.’

Applications opened on 17 August, and various consortia will be chosen after a rigorous assessment process by February 2021. They will then be asked to carry out a three-month feasibility study into their idea, for which they will each be awarded up to £50,000.