Team defies danger for Game Changers project

Researchers in Ukraine defied danger and devastation to continue work on a Game Changers project designed to improve land remediation at Sellafield.

The team at the Institute of Environmental Geochemistry of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Kyiv have been working with Sussex Innovation Centre based ANAMAD Ltd, an SME set up by scientists to find solutions to world problems with a current focus on water treatment and environmental remediation.

Using technology originally developed to monitor radioactivity in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, the scientists are making adaptations to enable Sellafield to remotely detect and analyse radioactive contamination during land remediation. Of particular interest are the innovative algorithms that the institute have developed, which potentially make it possible to detect and discriminate between various sources of radiation above or underground that are difficult to identify using traditional methods.

The scientists’ original intention was to equip a remotely operated vehicle with the technology, but the Russian invasion of Ukraine meant a scaling down of plans and a project refocus, switching to developing the technology into a prototype that can be used to prove the principles of the approach.

A safe transport route was arranged, and the prototype device has now reached the University of Southampton, where tests have been conducted in specialist radiochemical facilities in the Geosciences Advisory Unit-Radioanalytical and National Nuclear User Facility-EXACT laboratories to demonstrate the technology on behalf of Sellafield. Despite the war in Ukraine, research continues in the hope that it will be eventually possible to equip a drone or other moving vehicle as originally intended so that live field tests can be conducted.

Game Changers’ Programme Manager Stuart Brown said: “It’s amazing the lengths the Ukrainian scientists have gone to in their determination to continue with this potentially highly significant project.”

Sellafield’s New Capability Technical Manager Nicholas Clarke said: “The level of commitment and dedication seen here would be impressive in normal circumstances, let alone with the challenge of working in a war zone. I look forward to seeing the results of the trials and of understanding the future benefits to Sellafield and the wider nuclear industry.”