Public Funding for Nuvia Limited

The aim of this project is to develop and demonstrate Nu-Insight, a new patent-pending, smart, personal dosimetry, biometric monitoring and communications system which will: (1) protect the decommissioning operator from radiological hazards by measuring real-time dose rate, accumulated dose, and relaying this information to the operator; (2) protect the operator by measuring and monitoring, in real-time, the operator’s biometric status and relaying this information to the operator; (3) improve the operator’s working experience and productivity by relaying all of the above information, combined with positional information to identify the operators location, to the external supervisor; (4) improve the working experience and productivity of the operator by providing communications from an external supervisor; (5) optimise productivity by reducing the time and complexity of pre-entry radiological surveying activities through using the positional dose rate data gathered during normal operations, to aid the planning of radiological characterisation activities, as well as future operations. The smart personal dosimeter would act as a personal communications hub, collecting data from radiation detectors and proprietary biometric sensors, incorporating haptic feedback, communicating data back to a central control room through a series of fixed beacons and relaying messages back to the operator through haptics and connected glasses.

Foundation Industry (FI) wastes such as coal fly ash and ground granulated blast furnace slag can potentially be used in geopolymer cements to give more effective encapsulation of hazardous wastes compared with Portland Cement, which is extensively used at present. Activities will evaluate sources and types of FI wastes in the UK to select FI wastes for encapsulation trials and their business potential, namely: * develop geopolymer formulations and process methods to encapsulate simulants wastes using FI wastes as a key cement component. * maximise the amount encapsulated within the geopolymers * characterise properties of the composites to indicate compliance with disposal requirements This 12-month project is the first step of a timely opportunity to produce disruptive cement technology using FI wastes, creating internationally attractive products with low CO2 footprints.

The NuSORT project combines NUVIA Ltd's expertise in the manual and semi automated sorting a segregation of nuclear waste products and their tried and tested radiometrics instrumentation, data processing and software currently used on nuclear waste management applications around the world with the latest innovations in industrial automation, machine vision, machine learning and robotics control systems provided by Peacock Technology Ltd who supply this technology on a commercial basis to the oil and gas, agricultural and food processing sectors.

To develop, embed and exploit advanced autonomous and automated radiation monitoring robotic technology for health physics surveys within the nuclear, and other, sectors.

Nuvia Limited, a UK based, international nuclear engineering, project management and services contractor has teamed up with a number of the UK's top innovative technology providers in response to Innovate UK's SBRI IIND funding competition. The title of the project is "Nu-Decom" and that reflects the aim of the project which is to demonstrate a range of new decommissioning technologies that will deliver the safer, cheaper and quicker decommissioning of the UK's nuclear legacy. Nuvia have assembled a comprehensive team suited for the complex and wide ranging challenges associated with the decommissioning of the active process plants on the Sellafield site. The team includes expertise from both industry and academia, and the fields of expertise include: (1) Teleoperable systems, advanced robotics & semi-autonomous systems for challenging environments. (2) Remote radiometrics and geometric characterisation. (3) The post processing of geometric data into 3D modelling and visualisation software packages. (4) The use of games technology, virtual (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies to provide immersive environments for training and communications purposes. (5) The application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide a knowledge base and expert systems that can be used to support and guide remote operations across the UK's decommissioning program. (6) Application of Human Factors principles. These innovative new technologies and techniques will be integrated with Nuvia's own tried and tested nuclear decommissioning expertise and knowhow which has been successfully deployed throughout the UK and on the global decommissioning market thus providing an established route to a global market for UK Technologies. The Project Team's industrial partners include:- Nuvia (Project Lead), Clicks & Links (C&L), Hu-Tech, MOOG, PaR Systems, Tacit-Connections (TC), UKAEA RACE and Imitec. The Project Team's academic partners include: University of Manchester (UoM) and the University of Bristol (UoB). As part of Phase 1 the project team will assess each step in a typical decommissioning process including:- initial characterisation, decontamination, the design & manufacture process, operator training, HAZOP and safety case processes, site preparation, installation & commissioning, Safe Systems of Work (SSoW), the Human Machine Interface (HMI), remote operations, size reduction, consumable management, materials handling, routine maintenance, remote intervention & repair, waste export routes, ex-situ size reduction, assay monitoring, waste sorting, waste sentencing & segregation, waste packaging, waste container handling and finally export from the facility. Phase 1 will investigate the feasibility of applying the range of innovative technology platforms to each of the above steps and rank and rate each of the applications and potential benefits against the required criteria i.e. improved productivity, minimising human intervention, transferability, scalability and optimising waste treatment packing and routing into the most cost efficient waste streams. The project will also consider the Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) and the cost to develop technologies to a level suitable for (a) Inactive Demonstration (Phase 2) and (b) active demonstration. The project will prioritise and make recommendations for which platforms go forward to the Phase 2 inactive demonstration.

"QinetiQ, a UK multinational defence technology company based in Farnborough, Hampshire, has teamed up with a number of the UK's top innovative technology providers in response to Innovate UK's Research and Developments competition for Robotics and Artificial Intelligence in extreme and challenging Environments. The title of the project is ""Cthulhu"" named after the cosmic entity created by writer H. P. Lovecraft, a gigantic entity worshipped by cultists. Cthulhu's appearance is described as looking like an octopus, a dragon and a caricature of human form. QinetiQ have assembled a comprehensive team suited for the complex and wide ranging challenges associated with the decommissioning of the active process plants on the Sellafield site. The team includes expertise from both industry and academia, and the fields of expertise include: QinetiQ (lead), Nuvia UK Ltd, University of Lancaster, Bristol Maritime Robotics and FORTIS Remote Technology ; all the partners have in the past or are currently already working with Sellafield Limited and also across the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) estate on an number of diverse decommissioning related projects, bringing together complimentary technologies, systems, understanding and skills to deliver solutions for extreme environments that have application, some cross-cutting, Nationally and Internationally. This project undertakes research and the development of autonomous systems that exploit state of the art machine learning technologies in order to facilitate Autonomous Inspection and Maintenance of Hazardous (nuclear) Spaces. The proposed solution will deliver the following innovative components: * A robust robotic platform that is amphibious, with higher level of autonomy for extreme environment operations with 24/7 availability. * Simultaneous Localisation And Mapping (SLAM) based on sonar, tactile and passive Electro-optical (EO) sensors enabling underwater operations; able to recognise objects of interest using new fast transparent deep learning image classifiers, make decisions in the context of the task (inspect and move) including collision detection and avoidance * Tactile sensing for visually obscure environments to enable detailed local situational awareness to be achieved in support of the sonar sensing. * The platform will be compatible with a range of intelligent tooling modules and hence adaptable for a range of operational scenarios."

Nuvia Limited, a UK based, international nuclear engineering, project management and services contractor has teamed up with a number of the UK's top innovative technology providers in response to Innovate UK's SBRI IIND funding competition. The title of the project is "Nu-Decom" and that reflects the aim of the project which is to demonstrate a range of new decommissioning technologies that will deliver the safer, cheaper and quicker decommissioning of the UK's nuclear legacy. Nuvia have assembled a comprehensive team suited for the complex and wide ranging challenges associated with the decommissioning of the active process plants on the Sellafield site. The team includes expertise from both industry and academia, and the fields of expertise include: (1) Teleoperable systems, advanced robotics & semi-autonomous systems for challenging environments. (2) Remote radiometrics and geometric characterisation. (3) The post processing of geometric data into 3D modelling and visualisation software packages. (4) The use of games technology, virtual (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies to provide immersive environments for training and communications purposes. (5) The application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide a knowledge base and expert systems that can be used to support and guide remote operations across the UK's decommissioning program. (6) Application of Human Factors principles. These innovative new technologies and techniques will be integrated with Nuvia's own tried and tested nuclear decommissioning expertise and knowhow which has been successfully deployed throughout the UK and on the global decommissioning market thus providing an established route to a global market for UK Technologies. The Project Team's industrial partners include:- Nuvia (Project Lead), Clicks & Links (C&L), Hu-Tech, MOOG, PaR Systems, Tacit-Connections (TC), UKAEA RACE and Imitec. The Project Team's academic partners include: University of Manchester (UoM) and the University of Bristol (UoB). As part of Phase 1 the project team will assess each step in a typical decommissioning process including:- initial characterisation, decontamination, the design & manufacture process, operator training, HAZOP and safety case processes, site preparation, installation & commissioning, Safe Systems of Work (SSoW), the Human Machine Interface (HMI), remote operations, size reduction, consumable management, materials handling, routine maintenance, remote intervention & repair, waste export routes, ex-situ size reduction, assay monitoring, waste sorting, waste sentencing & segregation, waste packaging, waste container handling and finally export from the facility. Phase 1 will investigate the feasibility of applying the range of innovative technology platforms to each of the above steps and rank and rate each of the applications and potential benefits against the required criteria i.e. improved productivity, minimising human intervention, transferability, scalability and optimising waste treatment packing and routing into the most cost efficient waste streams. The project will also consider the Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) and the cost to develop technologies to a level suitable for (a) Inactive Demonstration (Phase 2) and (b) active demonstration. The project will prioritise and make recommendations for which platforms go forward to the Phase 2 inactive demonstration.

Awaiting Public Project Summary