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.

RACE’s unique skills in robotics are applied in multiple sectors, where we are 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 trials

Our team demonstrates and evaluates remote handling techniques and equipment using physical mock-ups for remote operations at JET, ITER, STEP and Europe’s DEMO. By hosting the ITER Robotics Test Facility, we have reduced risk in ITER’s planned interventions to ensure that this prominent international fusion research machine can be maintained over its operational lifetime.

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 international efforts to create a commercially viable fusion powerplant, including the UK’s STEP and Europe’s DEMO fusion machines.

In these projects, our engineers help define the remote handling requirements and incorporate them in the design of the plants themselves to ensure the plants 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 applied research in remote handling for decommissioning in nuclear fission and fusion through several collaborative programmes. The £12M LongOps project advanced remote handling technologies for decommissioning at JET, Sellafield and Fukushima Daiichi. As a founding member of the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Collaboration (RAICo), we are deploying robotic technologies and digital supporting infrastructure for faster, safer and more cost-effective decommissioning.

What we do