Sellafield's robot dog put to work for the first time

But it’s not all photo opportunities and test trials – Spot performs serious work in terms of cleaning up the Sellafield site and helping operators to stay out of harm’s way.

Those at Sellafield recently deployed the robot canine into an active area for the first time, and it proved up to the task.

Teams worked together on a project to understand the benefits of using Spot to inspect and clean active cells that would normally require workers to enter in air-fed protective suits.

The safety benefits were immediately clear – this takes humans out of the hazardous area, reducing the risks to operators who can instead focus on the easier job of operating Spot remotely.

Behind the controls of Spot the robot (Image: Sellafield)

The work can be done faster as Spot can work in these areas much longer than a human could safely do, and has halved the predicted costs and significantly reduced the waste generated from protective gear.

Charlotte Brew, sub project manager, Sellafield Ltd said: "We started with demonstrations of its potential and six months later, we’re using it to accelerate high hazard reduction.

"This work wasn’t meant to start happening until the late 2020s but identifying Spot like this has brought it forward.

"Just one robot dog is making a massive difference," she said. 

Sellafield Ltd operator, Paul Lupton said: "It’s about us being taken out of harm’s way. I do miss the hard work but I’ve no complaints about sitting down in a safe environment to get it done!

"Before we would have two operators go in, and this would need up to seven other people, taking up to four hours to prepare for an hour’s work.

"With Spot we do an hour, the battery runs out and we recharge.

"Even just an entry to take a photograph would be a major job. Now we just use the dog. It’s all there inside the cell waiting for you now," he said.