This event marked ten years of the Sellafield-sponsored Game Changers programme, bringing together the researchers, companies and nuclear sector teams behind technologies developed through the programme.
ARAMP has a long-standing connection with Game Changers. Sarah has been involved with the programme since its early years, and Game Changers funding supported the development of Gamma Optical Video Imaging for nuclear decommissioning. The project built on portable gamma-optical imaging developed for medical applications, adapting the technology so that operators can see the location and distribution of radioactive contamination overlaid on live optical video. That research has since continued in collaboration with Serac Imaging Systems Ltd. contributing to the development of the commercial Seracam system for nuclear applications. Earlier this year, Seracam and the GOVI research prototype were successfully demonstrated side-by-side in a live decommissioning environment at Sellafield. Following the successful trial, Sellafield has now purchased a Seracam unit for integration into its decommissioning toolkit.
At the anniversary event, Sarah gave an invited case-study talk alongside Mark Rosser from Serac Imaging Systems and Bill Thomson and Benedict Robinson from Sellafield Ltd. Together, they looked back at the technology journey from the original research and Game Changers project through to the recent live demonstration and commercial deployment.
Joining the ARAMP team at the Loughborough University exhibitor booth was Dr Sayed Masabi from the Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering, whose research with Prof Stephanos Theodossiades and colleagues is developing self-powered wireless sensing for long-term monitoring of air ducts. Their Game Changers-supported project uses energy harvested from airflow to power sensors monitoring parameters such as corrosion, temperature, humidity and airflow, reducing the need to access difficult environments to replace batteries.
It was a great opportunity to celebrate ten years of Game Changers, catch up with many of the people ARAMP has worked with through the programme and make new connections. We look forward to building on these collaborations and finding new opportunities to apply our research to challenges across the nuclear sector.