AWE Nuclear Security Technologies visits RAICo1 to learn about innovations for nuclear decommissioning 

On 20th August, colleagues from RAICo’s fifth and newest member, AWE Nuclear Security Technologies, paid their first full-day group visit to RAICo1. AWE joined RAICo in May 2025, bringing a 75-year heritage in nuclear safety and security innovation, and providing access to nuclear fission decommissioning sites where RAICo technologies can be tested and proven in real-world conditions. 

The visit

The visit to RAICo1 showcased technologies being developed across the RAICo programme – which ranged from health physics swabbing tools deployed on quadrupeds, to next-generation robotic glovebox concepts, to immersive virtual simulations built using RAICo’s simulation software capabilities.

As well as providing a technology showcase to RAICo’s newest member, it was an opportunity for AWE to see the potential of robotics and AI solutions in practice, inviting them to explore how they might address AWE’s own decommissioning challenges.

“It’s all well and good seeing things in PowerPoint slides, but seeing them in the flesh has given inspiration to how we could use these technologies on AWE sites,” said Luke Ankers, Team Leader Robotics and Smart Technologies at AWE.

“We’re really excited now to see the projects that AWE has helped shape going forward, and how they’re going to develop,” he adds. “We’re keen to have AWE staff up here helping RAICo understand our challenges. From there, we’d love to see the technology deployed on AWE sites. That’s obviously the end goal.”

Long-term opportunities and quick wins 

Among the demonstrations, AWE showed particular interest in RAICo’s work on glovebox automation, which Ankers saw as a long term programme but “one of the highest impact things we can do to reduce risks to AWE staff”. 

But the trip also highlighted several nearer-term applications..“The haptic control devices, the developments in quadrupeds, and health physics monitoring – these are all things we feel we could implement on our sites really quickly, getting immediate benefit from our membership of RAICo,” says Ankers. 

Strengthening collaboration 

Attendees on both sides were keen to note that the visit reinforced the value of RAICo’s collaborative model in accelerating innovation for nuclear decommissioning. On the one hand, the event showcased innovations AWE could use. On the other, it helped RAICo understand AWE’s areas of interest and challenges. Ultimately, this helps ensure the programme delivers deployable solutions. 

Dr Salvador Pacheco-Gutierrez, Head of RAICo Technology, concludes: “This is what RAICo is all about. Getting everyone together so that the people working in decommissioning can see what’s possible, get inspired, and share their challenges, then looking together at what we’ve developed, or what we could develop, to help provide solutions.”