TORONE - TOtal characterisation for Remote Observation in Nuclear Environments

Completed

Nuclear Fission and Fusion(Nuclear Fusion)
Nuclear Fission and Fusion(Nuclear Fission, Nuclear supporting technologies)

Basic and strategic applied research

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Physics)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Civil Engineering)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Environmental dimensions)

Professor P Martin
Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science
University of Manchester

Standard

EPSRC

01 April 2017

30 September 2021

54 months

£1,284,072

Energy

North West

NC : Engineering

Professor P Martin, Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science, University of Manchester

Dr M D Aspinall, Engineering, Lancaster University
Professor MJ Joyce, Engineering, Lancaster University
Professor B Lennox, Electrical & Electronic Engineering, University of Manchester
Professor N Smith, Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering, University of Manchester

Project Contact, Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), Japan
Project Contact, University of Florida, USA
Project Contact, Sellafield Ltd

The future use of nuclear energy in the UK and internationally is very much dependent on the ability to characterise the various highly radioactive environments that occur in the nuclear industry for both efficient decontamination and decommissioning as well as in the design of new nuclear fission reactors as well as fusion reactors.Currently, site and material characterisation is costly and time consuming because remote methods for the environmental, chemical and geoscientific characterisation of man-made and natural materials, specifically designed for the nuclear arena, are limited. The inaccessible, complex and confined nature of these often high-radioactivity environments can preclude traditional field-based data collection techniques, which are often focused on sample collection and off-site analysis. With costs entering the tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds for sample analysis in a particular plant, and the possibility that access is so restricted that obtaining samples may actually be impossible, remote in-situ analysis prior to segregation may offer a cheaper, safer, quicker and thus far more attractive solution. On their own, current in-situ techniques (e.g. gamma spectroscopy, 3D laser scanning, elemental composition through laser induced breakdown spectroscopy), each answer a particular characterisation question, but on their own only provide a component of the full characterisation picture that is required for instance for waste segregation.This project aims to combine such technologies into an integrated system, with each technology contributing in real-time to form a seamless jigsaw - a 'total characterisation' picture - setting characterised materials into the spatial context of the environment they are located in. Advanced robotics and control technologies will be used in a similar way to NASA's Curiosity Rover to form the flexible platform necessary for the trials in a range of nuclear environments from Sellafield in the UK to Fukushima in Japan.

18/02/19