Condition monitoring and inspection

There are thousands of waste containers currently stored on the Sellafield site in west Cumbria, each containing materials and objects which are the result of nuclear reprocessing or decommissioning activities over the past decades.

These cans, drums and mostly boxes (collectively known as packages) filled with various wastes are placed in above ground stores across the Sellafield site and it is anticipated that there could be more than 150,000 packages that will be sent to such stores over the next few decades.

Wastes could be dry, grouted, water covered, heat generating, gas generating, vitrifies or any combination of these but, in all cases, some degree of corrosion of the package will occur.

The situation

The stored waste packages could be in place for many decades, and it is important that during this period, Sellafield Ltd can confirm that the performance of the packages is as expected, demonstrating control. The behaviour of the waste is also of interest.

At present, the baseline position is to undertake monitoring by either:

• Removing individual, suspect packages into a designated area where they are inspected manually. This is particularly time consuming and difficult.
• Installing in-situ devices, the deployment of which is particularly difficult because of the complexity of the waste forms and the restrictive storage arrangements.

It is anticipated that introducing innovative thinking and technologies into this area will bring significant benefits to Sellafield’s decommissioning programme. Game Changers are looking for innovative technologies and instrumentation which could be considered, including developing ‘smart’ packages that monitor themselves, periodically taking devices/technologies to the packages or large area scanning e.g. hydrocarbon detection on oil refineries, atmospheric monitoring.

The opportunity

Sellafield are seeking ideas, innovations and technologies that will deliver game-changing improvements over the current baseline options, which could include:

• The development of new ‘smart packages’ that monitor themselves and/or communicate warnings if they are not performing as expected.
• Periodically taking devices/technologies to the packages in their storage locations.
• Large area scanning, such as deploying technologies akin to hydrocarbon detection on oil refineries or atmospheric monitoring.
• Technologies or techniques for visual observation and image analysis.

Please download the challenge statement for a full description of the challenge aims, current practice and the solutions Sellafield are seeking.