Energy futureFunding for developing nuclear clean-up tool

Published 29 January 2008

As nuclear power draws renewed interest — what with the rising price of oil and growing worries about global warming — there is more interest in tools and solutions to help deal with nuclear waste and nuclear clean-up

The U.K. Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) has awarded Leeds University spinout StructureVision £350,000 to help develop a tool to support nuclear clean-up programs. StructureVision provides innovative software solutions to enhance safety and provide major efficiency benefits to the nuclear waste management sector. The Grant for Research and Development (GRAND) will go towards the development of a new digital modeling tool for the nuclear industry. The technology can analyze and model object interaction, which enables objects to be packed into confined spaces such as containers. It will also be able to analyze and predict the most appropriate cutting lines for the cutting up and disposal of Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) during a decommissioning process.

The project is support by technical advisors the National Computing Centre and the National Physical Laboratory.