The decommissioning of the Sellafield site is anticipated to take over 100 years and cost in excess of £50bn.

Decommissioning of the site creates challenges never encountered before and requires investment in innovative technologies, concepts and methods.

Working in collaboration with Sellafield Ltd, we are inviting proposals for ‘Game Changers’ – new ideas and technologies which can reduce costs, reduce risk and make operations safer whilst accelerating the safe delivery of decommissioning.

Sellafield Ltd actively seek to engage businesses, academia and individuals who can bring their innovative, smart technologies and digital solutions into the nuclear arena and help accelerate the decommissioning programme whilst also reducing costs and upholding our commitment to human and environmental safety.

Challenge statements in different areas of decommissioning are being prepared by NNL and Sellafield’s Integrated Innovation Teams, each covering specific areas of interest to Sellafield Ltd.

After publication of the Challenges a series of events are being hosted covering specific nuclear sector decommissioning topics.

Bringing together industry leaders and experts, key Challenges will be presented for SMEs, academia, research and development organisations to consider.

These events are open to anyone who believes they may be able to contribute to the decommissioning challenge and, either individually or in collaboration with other organisations, can help Sellafield’s decommissioning objectives.

The Game Changers programme, supported by Sellafield Ltd, is your chance to bring your ideas and technologies to the UK’s largest decommissioning cluster.

As the Sellafield site prepares for an increased intensity in decommissioning activity, so we are seeking innovative tools and technologies to be a key enabler to efficient decommissioning and waste management.

The decommissioning creates challenges never encountered before and requires investment in innovative technologies, concepts and methods.

Sellafield Ltd actively seek to engage businesses, academia and individuals who can bring their innovative, smart technologies and digital solutions into the nuclear arena and help accelerate the decommissioning programme whilst also reducing costs and upholding our commitment to human and environmental safety.

Sellafield need to innovate to reduce the cost and decrease the time required to perform decommissioning. The scope of decommissioning considered here includes dismantling of plant and equipment, size reduction and packaging of the waste arising.

Whilst the industry has been decommissioning plant for many years, the future challenge at Sellafield is significantly greater than the projects performed previously.

The projects performed to date have utilised a combination of manual and often bespoke remote decommissioning equipment and forecasts have been based on these techniques as a baseline.

Improvements in dismantling have potentially significant secondary influences on lifetime costs; improved tools and techniques can substantially reduce costs for waste treatment and geological disposal.

Sellafield has substantial costs from maintaining facilities which quicker decommissioning can reduce.
Planned decommissioning activities carry a large risk to cost and schedule due to the uncertainty of future operations. By providing robust, tested solutions, the decommissioning risk can be reduced, providing savings against the baseline plan.

The Game Changers Innovation Programme is your chance to bring your ideas and technologies to the UK’s largest decommissioning cluster.

We appreciate that even at early concept stage, your ideas and time has a value; that’s why you will receive a £5,000 grant to articulate your idea with support and access to FIS360 and NNL expertise and staff at Sellafield.

If successful, additional Proof of Concept funding is available for further development through the Nuclear Technology Innovation Fund, also sponsored by Sellafield Ltd.

All intellectual property rights stay with the proposer: neither Sellafield Ltd. nor Innovus have any IP rights over your ideas and a non-disclosure agreement is provided, pre-signed, up front to this effect.

We want proposals which clearly articulate the innovative technology development needed to meet Sellafield’s decommissioning Challenges.