To develop, embed and exploit advanced mechanical engineering capability for the design and development, of a sludge removal system based upon the bladecutter technology tailored to meet unique requirements of the Fukushima decommissioning site.

Barrnon is an established innovative design and build engineering business in Appleby, Cumbria. It has designed the Barrnon Limited Innovative Sort and Segregate System (BLISSS) -- a concept that takes the tasks that human operatives do during nuclear decommissioning and replaces them with an artificial system with the ability to sort and segregate nuclear wastes. The key guiding principle of BLISSS is that the system is biomimetic -- it is a synthetic system that emulates the strategy, tactics and techniques of biological organisms - nuclear operatives - doing the same task. In utilizing this approach the system leverages evolution -- the approach has been established and proven as the most robust and efficient technique over millennia. Barrnon has evaluated the proposed concept with partners, proven feasibility, and will integrate it into one sort and segregate system -- up to TRL6\. BLISSS works by using sensors, 3D cameras and photographic processing to produce a surface map of the debris and by fusing this it allows accurate AI characterization and mapping then picking and placing by a robot. The BLISSS capability enables increased efficiency and effectiveness radiation detection and in cleaning up nuclear waste. Barrnon has a track record in partner collaboration and global delivery and it has unwavering confidence in the BLISSS technology being the ideal solution for sorting and segregating nuclear waste from decommissioning, with evidence to support it.

Barrnon is a UK-based, specialist engineering company providing turnkey solutions to address some of the world's most challenging environments. We pride ourselves in thinking differently, employing a small team of exceptional, world-class designers & engineers. We have established a global reputation in several industrial sectors including nuclear decommissioning. It is our mission to develop a completely innovative system for the excavation, capture, sluicing and removal of the hard-radioactive material that exists in the waste tanks at the Handford site in the US. This development, providing it can be achieved on time, will avoid any further contamination of the watercourse around the existing aged nuclear waste installation and therefore negating the potential environmental disaster.

The Connect-R project aims to develop an industrial-scale self-building modular robotic solution to provide access to worksites in hostile and hazardous environments. The objective of this self-configurable robotic scaffolding system is to provide structure in unstructured environments, and to afford other smaller robotic systems (with advanced end effectors), easy access to the required zone to carry out essential tasks. The initial deployment of the Connect-R system focuses on a nuclear decommissioning use case, but the system can also deliver capability in other sectors, such as offshore oil and gas, deep mining, and space exploration. The Connect-R system enables access to areas that were previously inaccessible, it unlocks huge potential in a variety of sectors, and it reduces the risk to human life by removing people from extreme and dangerous environments. It is our goal to provide quality, reliable, engineering products that consistently work in hazardous environments to allow our clients to decommission their aging, dangerous and hazardous installations. A key enabler to our Connect-R self-reconfigurable modular robotic structure is the Genderless Mechanical Connection (GMC). We believe that the GMC provides a generic solution for the mechanical docking and undocking between modules; it also gives a robust and effective connection for hydraulic power and data. The main objectives of this project extension are to mature the readiness of the GMC technology through further targeted Testing, Validation & Verification, and Demonstration, not only to our current stakeholders from the Nuclear market but also to representatives of the Oil & Gas sector.

In our first SBRI competition entry, Barrnon designed and submitted a robotic solution called BIDS (the Barrnon Integrated Decommissioning System). It can be used to characterize and reduce the size of radioactive assets -- that need decommissioning. The company's new robotic venture is called BLISSS (Barrnon Limited Integrated Sort and Segregate System), building on this previous work. It is a system capable of autonomously identifying, characterizing, picking and placing various debris resulting from decommissioning. BLISSS brings together innovative vision, sensing, machine learning, robotic control, algorithms and formal methods to sort, segregate and verify debris for waste export -- all in accordance with nuclear waste category methodologies. BLISSS is revolutionary in that it can replicate, and radically improve on, the capabilities of a human worker during decommissioning - eliminating the need for human operatives in the hazardous environment to sort and segregate waste. The technology allows an object to be recognized, characterized in terms of substance and radioactivity, verified, manipulated and placed autonomously; also the system is protected by formal methods - a mathematical proof that the system is doing what is required and can _NEVER_ do otherwise, eliminating the uncertainty of augmented intelligence and human error. The system will also increase efficiency and effectiveness: * at the work-face - BLISSS doesn't get fatigued, doesn't get bored, doesn't get life threatening injuries, doesn't need to change out PPE, doesn't have a human dose limitation and can work at the pace brought by robotics and machine learning 24/7\. * due to lack of rework - BLISS does not make human errors, it is as predictable as 1+1=2 due to formal method mathematics. * due to record keeping - all digital, all accurate, all compiled, all verified, always. * due to algorithm derived optimized packing - the system scans the items for form factor and surface area and packs the items taking into consideration Waste Acceptance Criteria. BLISSS is not platform specific. The BIDS platform is flexible and is specifically designed for multiple tool, multiple sensor compatibility, plug and play. However the capability is brought by integrating machine vision, sensing, machine learning and mathematical verification with hardware specifically developed for nuclear cell decommissioning. BLISSS is agnostic to platform. It is a suite of programs and algorithms that can be utilized by typical decommissioning hardware as it communicates via industry standard protocols and languages.

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Barrnon Integrated Decommissioning System The tasks addressed by the Barrnon Integrated Decommissioning System include characterisation, planning, visualisation, size reduction, chemical & sludge removal, contamination management, decontamination, control and mitigation of airbone contamination, waste handling, waste segregation and storage. All is achieved through the design and development of an integrated system for the decontamination and decommissioning of contaminated materials bringing existing and new technology to the workface enabling a substantial reduction in cost whilst giving an additional reduction in operator risk and a reduction in decommissioning timescales. This will be achieved through the use of new and innovative sensor technology, innovative robotic manipulation equipment combining a wide range of end effectors. A Novel liquid nitrogen decontamination process reduces contamination without producing any secondary waste enabling the user to down grade the waste classification, reducing the cost of waste storage. The package will seamlessly intergrate the advances of VR technology both for characterisation and planning but also for direct operator interface, all in conjunction with existing visulisation machine control. We create a user friendly system which allows characterisation pre, during and post operation reducing the risk, speeding up the process, reducing the cost of operations. Our equipment will offer a step change approach; each of the partners are at the forefront of their given area of expertise. Each partner is working currently on major projects globally and in instances already collaborating to deliver work. This global approach takes learning from the likes of Japan (Fukushima), Hanford (US) as well the European markets to give our product reliable deployment, in turn allowing us to create new markets swiftly for our innovation. The technologies of the main project partners Oxford Technologies Ltd, Createc Ltd and Barrnon will combine to offer a suite of decomissioning tools readily deployable with advanced decomissioning tequniques making the process of decomissionning faster, cheaper safer.

The tasks addressed by the Barrnon Integrated Decommissioning System include characterisation, planning, visualisation, size reduction, chemical & sludge removal, contamination management, decontamination, control and mitigation of airbone contamination, waste handling, waste segregation and storage. All is achieved through the design and development of an integrated system for the decontamination and decommissioning of contaminated materials bringing existing and new technology to the workface enabling a substantial reduction in cost whilst giving an additional reduction in operator risk and a reduction in decommissioning timescales. This will be achieved through the use of new and innovative sensor technology, innovative robotic manipulation equipment combining a wide range of end effectors. A Novel liquid nitrogen decontamination process reduces contamination without producing any secondary waste enabling the user to down grade the waste classification, reducing the cost of waste storage. The package will seamlessly intergrate the advances of VR technology both for characterisation and planning but also for direct operator interface, all in conjunction with existing visulisation machine control. We create a user friendly system which allows characterisation pre, during and post operation reducing the risk, speeding up the process, reducing the cost of operations. Our equipment will offer a step change approach; each of the partners are at the forefront of their given area of expertise. Each partner is working currently on major projects globally and in instances already collaborating to deliver work. This global approach takes learning from the likes of Japan (Fukushima), Hanford (US) as well the European markets to give our product reliable deployment, in turn allowing us to create new markets swiftly for our innovation. The technologies of the main project partners Oxford Technologies Ltd, Createc Ltd and Barrnon will combine to offer a suite of decomissioning tools readily deployable with advanced decomissioning tequniques making the process of decomissionning faster, cheaper safer.

To design, develop and embed advanced electrical and mechanical control systems to commercialise a buoyancy system to compensate for varying loads and stresses on a floating hydrospider workstation

Barrnon Ltd. are developing a novel new system to safely remove sludge from nuclear storage ponds and silos where nuclear waste is stored under water. The system will allow faster and more efficient collection of the sludge and will not unduly disperse it into the water. Ponds and silos of all sizes and depths will be catered for, and the system will be developed to collect a full range of sludge consistencies. UK nuclear decommissioning projects will be targeted first, but the system has potential to be used in similar projects worldwide. According to the World Nuclear Association there are currently 270,000 tonnes of used nuclear fuel in storage, and 90% of this is stored in ponds, mostly at the reactor sites. Each year a further 12,000 tonnes of used fuel arises, with 9,000 tonnes going into storage and 3,000 tonnes being reprocessed. See http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Nuclear-Fuel-Cycle/Nuclear-Wastes/Radioactive-Waste-Management/