Ensuring Decommissioning Safety, Integrity and Verification through Advanced Ultrasonic Sensor-Enabled Cutting

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The overarching aim of the PhD is to transform automated decommissioning efficiency flexibility and costs, reducing risks on the Sellafield and other nuclear sites in a much shorter timeframe saving taxpayers and governments hundreds of millions of pounds. The core technical aim of this PhD is to investigate the potential for ultrasonic sensor-enabled feedforward and feedback control of the robotised laser cutting process to deliver optimum cut process parameters at all times, for safe, efficient, flexible, lower-cost decommissioning. The project and the student will directly align with the Hot Robotics NNUF project involving the University of Bristol, University of Manchester and Remote Applications in Challenging Environments (RACE) arm of the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), specifically working alongside and on the new flexible robotic laser cutting cell being set up by NNL in Workington to progress future PhD outcomes to exploitation in the coming decade.