Nuclear Technology: safe, efficient, low-carbon energy generation

Despite its chequered past, nuclear energy is an important feature of world wide and UK electricity and power generation. According to Dr Paul Dorfman at Warwick Business School, the UK could soon emerge as Europe’s lone player in nuclear energy, as Germany, producer of a sixth of European energy, makes good its commitment to suspend its nuclear programme by 2022. And the Germans are not alone, with Italy, Belgium, Austria, Spain and Denmark all discussing plans to phase out nuclear activity. Whatever happens, a European energy shake up has interesting consequences for Britain, and potentially means big things for the Bristol and Bath area.

The technology

New nuclear build is a key issue for the UK, as older reactors come offline in the next few years. The current plans for expanding our nuclear infrastructure revolve around new plant designs that use technologies with the promise to make the plants safer and more efficient than their predecessors. It is vital that as new design nuclear reactors address issues of environmental and human safety, waste disposal and decommissioning.
Current research and commercial technologies include powerful spectroscopy and imaging of materials to identify defects before and during reactor activity. The beauty of these techniques lies in their ability to probe materials in detail, whilst being largely non-invasive. This means that engineers can improve their understanding of the materials required and identify problems, whilst maintaining reactor operation. Such technologies are a lead player in nuclear safety and innovation.

What is happening in the South West?

At the centre of recent nuclear innovation in the South West is the new Nuclear Research Centre (NRC), launched in November 2011. A collaborative venture between Bristol and Oxford Universities, the NRC aims to be a beacon for nuclear research initiatives, and will employ and train top physical scientists, engineers and social science experts. Bristol University Engineer and Co-Director Professor David Smith explains: “We want it to be the tip of the pyramid when it comes to nuclear innovation. Britain is a leader in nuclear, and this project aims to keep it at the cutting edge of energy developments.”The NRC is to have three main areas of expertise: Nuclear futures, advanced research and research applications. Within this framework, NRC experts will address how best to tackle nuclear safety issues for current new build, and help policy makers generate informed decisions.

There is already a considerable nuclear infrastructure in the South West, including key reactors at Oldbury and Hinkley Point, as well as a significant industrial presence and regional expertise.Rolls-Royce is one of the largest players in the South West, being synonymous with British aerospace and civil engineering. Currently Nuclear Power Plant manufacture and maintenance has to adhere to international safety standards, the two major ones being RCC-M and ASME-III. Within these guidelines, Rolls Royce offer expertise in designing and commissioning new builds, along with safety review procedures and fault screening.

 
Other firms based in the South West area include AMEC and Frazer-Nash.  AMEC’s nuclear concern deals with waste management and decommissioning plants at the end of their life-cycle. They have worked closely with waste storage projects at Sellafield since 2002, and have worked to create new ventilation systems for airborne waste, which meet current Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) standards. A large part of their newer nuclear technology is based around remote radiological monitoring. Frazer-Nash also work on both new reactors and decommissioning projects. An example given on their website shows how computer technologies are now able to model and improve processes in the nuclear industry: providing an understanding of the temperature conditions in nuclear waste storage facilities.

Opportunities for business

There is no doubt that both research and industrial activity in the nuclear sector can create wealth; there is space for businesses to grow in the supply chain in the South West. New innovations and technology are required for a safe and secure nuclear future. These technologies need to adhere to risk assessment and strict manufacturing standards, but also required is a forward looking understanding of nuclear physics and chemistry, materials science and analysis, fluids and mechanical engineering, not to mention environmental science. Only with a rigorous grasp of these subjects can nuclear become a success story for the UK.

One opportunity is ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), an ambitious global research project into nuclear fusion. ITER’s construction offers UK companies a number of business opportunities including civil, mechanical and electrical engineering, consultancy services and project management through to instrumentation, advanced materials and precision engineering.

The Nuclear Industry Association has a nuclear supply chain portal where companies can find out about current opportunities. MAS-SW has the expertise to offer targeted strategic support to companies considering branching out into this arena, assisting in identifying opportunities.”We have knowledge of the fusion process, enabling us to identify companies that perhaps weren’t aware they possess the skills and knowledge to tender. ” says Paul Gilbert, Low Carbon and Innovation Specialist at MAS-SW. “Nuclear fusion could represent an essential new revenue stream to a number of South West firms” (ref. SW Innovation News).

Original piece publish Feb 2012, available at http://www.sciencecitybristol.com/pages/19-telling-the-story/items/308-nuclear-technology-safe-efficient-low-carbon-energy-generation

One of Bristol’s beacons of innovation, the Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL), welcomed cities’ minister Greg Clark to the purpose-built facility at the University of the West of England’s (UWE) Frenchay campus in Bristol last month (February 2012). A joint initiative that partners Bristol University and UWE, the Bristol Robotics Laboratory was founded in 2005, and is the largest robotics facility in the UK. A world-class research environment, it brings together expertise and resources from a range of disciplines, and a large number of projects involve national and global partnerships with both academia and industry.


What does BRL do?

The different project areas draw on sciences as diverse as microbiology, psychology, computer studies and various engineering interests. “The range of research is incredibly broad”, says Professor Alan Winfield, an engineer and expert in swarm robotics. Winfield explains that some projects focus on humanoid (human-like) robotics and human-robot relationships, whilst other groups within BRL are interested in robot systems that take inspiration from biology.

Bio-inspired bots and human-cyborg relations

The EcoBot project, a robotic system that creates energy from digestion, has attracted a large outside interest. EcoBot uses Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) technology, in which energy rich molecules such as sugars are broken down by microbes. This process liberates electrons, which can then be used to power the constituent circuits in these autonomous robots. In addition to this, a team lead by Dr Ioannis Ieropoulos has secured prestigious funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation for a project that uses MFCs to generate electricity from urine. This groundbreaking work could not only help developing countries to generate electricity from an abundant source, but the team hopes it can be used for wastewater treatment here in the UK.
Possibly the largest research area is humanoid robot forms. The ANDY project (Anthropomorphic Natural Dynamics) aims to make the physical behaviour of robotic bodies more natural, taking inspiration from the constraints and virtues of real human muscular and motor systems. Working with Elumotion, a small robotics company based in Bath, the BRL team have designed and produced more lifelike systems.
Chris Melhuish, Director of the BRL and a humanoid robotics expert hopes that projects like this will not only increase robotic flexibility and efficiency, but also improve their relationships with humans in everyday life.
“Robotics is a community that has enjoyed steady growth, and is fundamentally important for all sorts of applications”. The ability of robots to assist people in tasks is becoming increasingly important, for example in helping a growing older population, and in medical rehabilitation programmes for chronic diseases”. Bristol’s excellent hospital and medical research infrastructure allows other projects to look at robotics for related applications. A recent example is a collaborative effort between BRL, Bristol Royal Infirmary and imaging experts Simpleware, which investigates healing bone fractures using robotic systems as a less invasive strategy than traditional open surgery. Another area is so called ‘soft robotics’; which looks at creating robotic muscles and organs, along with active skins, as examples of bio-inspired artificial technologies.
Safety is another big aspect of what BRL do, and the Co-operative Human-Robot Interaction Systems (CHRIS) project is at the core of creating robots that work intelligently and intuitively to aid human activity, rather than put flesh and blood co-workers at risk.

Towards intelligence: Swarms and Autonomous Robots

The BRL mission is to create “autonomous devices capable of working independently, with each other, or with us in human society”. Professor Winfield’s own research is based around investigating systems of robots that work together in a decentralised manner; individual robots being able to work intelligently as part of a group. This ability of robots to be aware of each other in the group, called a swarm, can increase the energy efficiency of robots in a range of situations. Understanding how individual machines work as part of a system, and increasing that ability is key to improving the range of ‘real life’ applications available to robotics.

South West IT and engineering experts SciSys have also found the question of autonomy and intelligence key in their robotics work. Dr Mark Woods, a researcher involved in creating the Autonomous Robotic Scientist, explains: “As part of the European Space Agency (ESA) exploration programme on Mars, the ExoMars Rover needs to overcome huge challenges, such as severe energy and communications restrictions”. His team develops robots to overcome these problems, with the ability to modify their intitial instructions to take account of new information whilst on Mars; a kind of “real time contingency plan”. Woods adds that autonomous navigation is essential, and that the robots “have a basic knowledge of geology, so they can immediately respond to sites of interest and relay potential discoveries more efficiently”. The SciSys team, who have also worked with Elumotion, are interested in creating autonomous transport devices, and plan to test robots with an ability to travel kilometre distances unaided.

The Future for the South West

Worldwide, the future for the robotics industry is one of continuous innovation and growth, complementing international markets within electronics and information. The IFR World Robotics report (2011) shows that service robots, primarily for use in the public sector, will provide a massive boost to the industry.

“The Bristol area is a fantastic hub for this community” says Chris Lee of SciSys, who notes another local example of a thriving company in OC Robotics. OC Robotics’ snake-arm robot could prove to be of huge use to the defense and civil aviation industries, and has already carried out safety checks in radioactive areas of nuclear power plants. The arm, which is self-supporting, is controlled by steel wires that run through movable links, while various tools can be fitted to the end such as cameras, lights, cutting equipment or swabs.

Chris Melhuish uses the term community as well: “We are very much engaged in collaborating with industry and academic partners. Creating complex robots capable of reading text and interacting with real objects, for example, is no simple task, but the interest and investment would simply not exist without it being worthwhile”.

The original of this piece appears at: http://www.sciencecitybristol.com/pages/19-telling-the-story/items/312-robotics-in-the-south-west [Published March 2012]