Companies in south win funding to aid remote monitoring of UK's earliest nuclear sites

Four projects in the south to aid remote monitoring of legacy nuclear sites have won a share of more than £700,000 in funding.

They are among a total of 10 winning projects put forward by innovative organisations in the Remote Monitoring of Sensitive Sites competition, run on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) by the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA).

Now they will receive funding to fast-track their novel ideas and will present their concept solutions to a range of government stakeholders in summer 2023.

Winners include:

Earth-i Limited

Guildford-based Earth-i Limited’s project seeks to demonstrate an asset mapping and monitoring system that uses high resolution satellite Earth Observation data combined with airborne and terrestrial data sources to provide a rich set of information layers for NDA decision-makers.

Archangel Imaging

Didcot-based Archangel Imaging’s ATOM project aims to create a mobile, autonomous surveillance system which can be augmented with a range of third-party solutions or updated with specific algorithms to maintain a technological edge in remote site monitoring.

ISS Aerospace

This innovation from Chieveley-based ISS Aerospace seeks to utilise an autonomous unmanned aerial system (UAS) with on-board real time AI processing, in combination with specially developed intelligent detectors capable of learning their environment. The UAS will respond to changes detected by unattended ground-based sensors which collect data for temperature, humidity, noise, motion, and air quality.

Autonomous Devices Limited

The project from Milton Keynes-based Autonomous Devices Limited seeks to develop Theia, an aerial robotic system for collecting close-range and contact-based sensor data from inaccessible parts of an asset, bridging the gap between wide-area, stand-off, remote inspection, and detailed, close-up, manual investigation.

The competition sought innovations to enable the collection of data remotely on assets, infrastructure and the surrounding environment/ecosystem.

The NDA is charged with cleaning up the UK’s 17 earliest nuclear sites safely, securely and cost-effectively. It is vital that monitoring, inspection and security capabilities remain fit for purpose, and, where appropriate, are continuously improved or enhanced in order to maintain safe, secure and more efficient operations and to inform future decommissioning efforts across the UK.

The funded technologies from this competition may help promote more proactive decision-making in managing these sites, while also reducing the risk associated with undertaking potentially hazardous operations compared to current methods.

Andrew Gray, the NDA's Innovation Delivery Manager, said: “We are excited to be working with DASA on this competition, which has generated a huge amount of interest across many different sectors.

“The competition will support the development of new technologies for remote sensing and application of novel approaches, which will enable us to monitor our large and geographically distributed estate.

“This will help us deliver our decommissioning mission in different ways, reduce risk and provide additional insights for improving how we manage our infrastructure, and inform decision-making processes.

“We are eager to see how the creative solutions being put forward by the supply chain will evolve.”

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