Technology

Technology: at the core of everything we do

The nuclear industry is constantly advancing, that is why technology and innovation is at the heart of what we do.

As our customers’ assets have grown in complexity, they’re turning to us for their technology solutions. Our experts exert technical authority to make better decisions for – and with – our customers wherever they are in the world. We’re ensuring our people have the right skillsets to take our business forward and support our customers.

Cavendish Nuclear’s AmCam is a handheld, compact, lightweight device that combines a gamma ray spectrometry detector with a small video camera, capable of indicating radiation count rate alongside a corresponding video image of the area being surveyed.

Key Information:

  • Quick identification of the location of material build up within gloveboxes
  • Images can be used to pinpoint the origins of elevated dose / count rates
  • Estimates can be made of the dose rates and activity levels of hotspots
  • Aids quality assurance for the Post Operations Clean Out (POCO) characterisation or waste category segregation processes
  • Used to plan / target future POCO clean-up operations
  • Used to segregate waste items between PCM and ILW waste categories*

Cavendish Nuclear has created one complete engineered system for decommissioning redundant nuclear reprocessing cells by combining spatial & radiometric scanning, remote deployment and virtual reality (VR) control with proven tools and end-effectors. Our In-Cell Decommissioning System is a Remote Deployment Device (RDD) which has increased the capability and speed with which redundant active reprocessing cells can be decommissioned by utilising a ‘point and teach’ approach controlled remotely by VR. The system has led to safer and more cost-efficient operations.

Key Information:

  • Customer: Innovate UK, Sellafield Ltd, Nuclear.
  • Decommissioning Authority & BEIS
  • Potential Site: Sellafield
  • Value: £1.5 Million
  • Competition: Innovate UK – Integrated Innovation for Nuclear Decommissioning
  • Capabilities – Design, Engineering, Manufacture, Assembly Commission, Test, Install and Demonstrate

Cavendish Nuclear has over 40 years’ experience of providing radiometric measurement solutions for the entire nuclear lifecycle. An innovation developed by Cavendish Nuclear’s Sellafield-based Radiometrics team provides an assay solution for specialist measurements of waste items, from small packages to large ISO-freight containers, and plant infrastructure. The solution, Particle Swarm Imaging, or PSIM, is unique in the industry and is therefore a cleartechnical differentiator over ‘conventional’ analysis methods for Cavendish Nuclear’s services and products.

Key Information:

  • Accurate categorisation – More robust than conventional methods as no assumptions are made about the activity distribution.
  • Activity Image – Provides an image of activity distribution within waste items, or around plant infrastructure to aid POCO strategy
  • Verification Monitoring – Independent technique can provide robust interrogation of wastes
  • Cost effective – No capital outlay, delivered as a service at low risk
  • Versatile – Ideally suited to dense, high dose items and plant infrastructure with complex geometries
  • Quick and easy deployment – Portable equipment, battery operated and weather protected

Cavendish Nuclear has secured Government backing to pioneer advanced manufacturing and sensor technologies with the potential to deliver significant savings. AWESIM, the Automated Welding Equipment System Inspection and Monitoring, is the first of its kind to combine machine learning, sensor development and advanced remote manufacturing processes to deliver welding, weld inspection and potentially weld certification all in near real time.

Cavendish Nuclear’s fast neutron detector based Plutonium Hold-Up Measurement System (PHUMS) is a lightweight, compact and portable assay system with the flexibility to measure the nuclear material content of a wide range of objects including process cells, facilities, gloveboxes, pipes and drums to inform Initial Decommissioning strategies.

Key Information:

  • The ultimate tool for informing Initial Decommissioning strategy, waste management and security applications
  • Unique, modular, mobile design for the in-situ assay of a wide range of object sizes and shapes
  • Calculates both hold-up mass and distribution
  • Determines information for use in pre-commencement safety cases
  • State of the art fast neutron counting technology
  • Novel analytical methods including likelihood expectation and clustering techniques
  • Optional High Resolution Gamma Spectrometry system for Pu isotopics analysis