What we do

RACE is the UKAEA’s centre for Remote Applications in Challenging Environments. We design, operate and deliver robotics for extreme industrial environments, working towards our goal: bringing fusion energy to the grid.

A graphic render of MASCOT in the JET vessel, shown with a pink-red plasma

Fusion promises to be a safe, sustainable and low-carbon part of the world’s future energy supply in the second half of this century.

Fusion powerplants will be maintained by remote handling equipment and autonomous robotics. RACE is leading the development of technology to maintain fusion powerplants safely and efficiently. 

And it doesn’t stop there: RACE’s unique skills in robotics can be applied to multiple sectors, making it possible to carry out tasks in the most challenging environments imaginable.

Maintenance conditions in a fusion powerplant:

High radiation

Dose rates may reach 3 kGy per hour

Extreme temperatures

During maintenance, components may be as hot as 500 K

Limited access

Maintenance ports are long and narrow, often shared with other equipment, and may reach up to 5 m into the vessel

Vacuum pressures

Maintenance may need to be performed at vacuum pressure

Magnetic fields

Residual magnetic fields are expected to be around 40 mT

Hazardous materials

Components may contain hazardous materials like lithium and beryllium

Capabilities

RACE has developed specialist skills in robotics and remote maintenance systems that make it possible to carry out tasks in challenging environments where people cannot work.

Performing remote operations

RACE’s remote handling expertise stemmed from the need to design and operate remote handling equipment for the maintenance of the Joint European Torus (JET).

Now, with over 30,000 hours of in-vessel operational experience, the RACE team provides training for remote handling teams in the UK, Sweden and Japan.

An operator holds both arms of the MASCOT local device.
Two operators use haptic input devices in a robotics control room.

Remote operation feasibility trials

As the home of ITER’s Robotics Test Facility (IRTF), our team demonstrates remote access techniques in mock-up environments using in-house cutting-edge digital tools.

We evaluate robotic tools for specific scenarios and put new software to the test.

Programmes

Take a look at what we are working on

RACE is engineering the freedom to operate in challenging environments. To achieve our fusion engineering goals, we work closely with the nuclear decommissioning industry and others.

Programmes
An operations team perform an operation during tests of the prototype MASCOT 6 manipulator

Design for remote maintenance

RACE plays a key role in the long-term efforts to create a commercially viable fusion powerplant, including the UK’s STEP and the European DEMO fusion machines.

In both projects our engineers help define not just the remote handling techniques, but also the design of the plants themselves, ensuring they can be operated and maintained.

Remote Handling Operations Engineers perform a task using MASCOT from the Remote Handling Control Room at JET.
An engineer inspecting a tendon-driven snake-arm robot

Design, integrate, deliver

Beyond fusion, RACE supports international ‘big science’ projects such as the European Spallation Source (ESS), a cutting-edge neutron science facility in Sweden. RACE leads the delivery of the site’s Active Cells Facility, the world’s largest windowless hot cell – designing, specifying and commissioning the facility that will process irradiated waste.

Two engineers observe a robot moving in a glass robotic glovebox

Research and Development

Our team contributes to world-leading R&D in remote handling and decommissioning through several collaborative programmes such as Robotics and Artificial Intelligence in Nuclear (RAIN), which focuses on robotic gloveboxes, and the £12M LongOps programme to advance remote handling technologies for decommissioning at JET, Sellafield and Fukushima Daichi.

Find out more about RACE

An operations team perform an operation during tests of the prototype MASCOT 6 manipulator

Programmes

RACE is engineering the freedom to operate in challenging environments. To achieve our fusion engineering goals, we work closely with the nuclear decommissioning industry and others.

Collaborate

Delivering world-changing robotics and bringing fusion energy closer to reality through close collaborations with our partners.

Two of RACE’s engineers observe the innards of a MASCOT prototype using a torch

Careers at RACE

UKAEA is a world leader in fusion energy.

We design, build and operate robotics for extreme industrial environments, working towards our goal: bringing fusion energy to the grid.

Keep up to date with what's going on at RACE