Periodic Reporting for period 2 - RED LINE (Innovative robotic sorting technology to reduce hazardous wastes)
Berichtszeitraum: 2022-07-01 bis 2024-06-30
More than 60 years of use of nuclear energy has resulted in the accumulation of large volumes of radioactive waste, which have not yet found their conclusive disposal. Around 6.3 million m3 of wastes are piling up in unsafe stores in many countries, among which 4.7 million m3 are solid Low- and Intermediate Level Wastes (LLW and ILW or LILWl). These figures will soar as most of the world’s current nuclear fleet will reach the end of life and new radioactive waste will be produced each year (11.7 million m3 yet to be produced from future decommissioning activities by 2050).
These Wastes contain a wide range of deteriorated materials with various radioactivity emission levels and corrosion products. If not placed in an appropriate package and disposal in a suitably engineered multibarrier facility, they show a real risk of critical incidents, fire, explosion, radioactive release, contamination, and pollution.
To reduce the presence of these Wastes, the first step is to sort them precisely. This is an essential process. However today, nuclear waste sorting is slow and error-prone, especially with small items. Operations are driven by human teleoperators, who pick and separate the items with tools like remotely operated arms. In addition, legacy Waste are barely recognizable after years of physical and chemical changes. They are often undocumented as records of the original designs of the legacy sites and the inventories of their waste content may not be available or no longer represent the current situation. Consequently, there is a risk to jeopardize the entire process by casting doubt on the physical, chemical, and radiological state of a waste pile.
On top of that, the working environment is not safe. The national, EU and international authorities are urging the nuclear sites and engineering companies to put any possible safeguards in place to avoid a leak of radioactivity (according to the ALARA compelling principle).
Finding a new strategy to sort and segregate nuclear Waste in a safe and accurate manner is of primary importance. The full automation of nuclear waste sorting would be the solution. However, full automation of these heterogeneous and unstable Wastes remains “a dream”.
This pain point is the starting point of the RED LINE project, carried out by SILÉANE. The company will scale up its autonomous waste sorting robotic system, currently applied to civil waste-producing industries, to help clean up more than half of a century of nuclear wastes and reduce the number of wastes still to be generated by this industry.
These Wastes contain a wide range of deteriorated materials with various radioactivity emission levels and corrosion products. If not placed in an appropriate package and disposal in a suitably engineered multibarrier facility, they show a real risk of critical incidents, fire, explosion, radioactive release, contamination, and pollution.
To reduce the presence of these Wastes, the first step is to sort them precisely. This is an essential process. However today, nuclear waste sorting is slow and error-prone, especially with small items. Operations are driven by human teleoperators, who pick and separate the items with tools like remotely operated arms. In addition, legacy Waste are barely recognizable after years of physical and chemical changes. They are often undocumented as records of the original designs of the legacy sites and the inventories of their waste content may not be available or no longer represent the current situation. Consequently, there is a risk to jeopardize the entire process by casting doubt on the physical, chemical, and radiological state of a waste pile.
On top of that, the working environment is not safe. The national, EU and international authorities are urging the nuclear sites and engineering companies to put any possible safeguards in place to avoid a leak of radioactivity (according to the ALARA compelling principle).
Finding a new strategy to sort and segregate nuclear Waste in a safe and accurate manner is of primary importance. The full automation of nuclear waste sorting would be the solution. However, full automation of these heterogeneous and unstable Wastes remains “a dream”.
This pain point is the starting point of the RED LINE project, carried out by SILÉANE. The company will scale up its autonomous waste sorting robotic system, currently applied to civil waste-producing industries, to help clean up more than half of a century of nuclear wastes and reduce the number of wastes still to be generated by this industry.
With this EIC Accelerator project, the waste sorting robot system will reach TRL 8 within 24 months, and TRL 9 shortly after the project ends.
For the system to reach full efficiency and be transferable to both the civil waste sorting industry and the nuclear waste sorting application, the technological scale-up of RED LINE is to be fully performed during the project.
Below is the description of the work realized during the first project year, during which we developed and integrated the following functions:
a) Functions in the “nuclearized” waste sorting Robot:
- radioactive classification with additional Alpha, Beta and Gamma sensors to segregate the waste by radioactivity level (High Level, Intermediate Level or Low Level).
- storage optimization of the parts in the containers to minimize the storing occupation space by 25%.
- Nuclearization the system in making each component of the system radiation-proof.
b) Functions for the civil waste sorting Robots :
- Upgrade of the AI-software’s for enhanced waste recognition
- Integrate spectrometer sensor for material detection onto our 2D and 3D Vision systems
- Run a Design to Cost program: Make a simple and affordable system for wide dissemination.
After completion of the second project year, the civil waste sorting prototype has been transfered from the first industrial site to a second site to prove the industrial performances achieved on the first site but in different conditions.
The commercial development also started as a "catalog" machine on the waste sorting market. In the meantime, we have regained our full commercial autonomy and independance. Our previous partner remains a business contractor.
Regarding the nuclear prototype, we have signed a cooperation contract with the CEA as the result of our consultation to find a site to implement the nuclear waste sorting prototype. The chosen site to implement the prototype is at the "CEA Saclay". In the meantime, the technical scale-up and nuclearization of the waste sorting machine was continued. The commercial Development has increased on the nuclear marked. And IP protection of our work regarding our robotised nuclear waste solutions has been initiated.
During this 2nd year, Siléane has also :
- expanded by opening subsidiaries in 3 more cities in France (Bray-sur-Somme and La Roche-sur-Yon and Rennes), conducting the structuring of the company to pursue the goal of growing into a midcap company (200 people at this stage, 40M€ Turnover).
- structured its administrative departments (Finance, Business, Marketing, Communication, HR, Supply, Quality).
- launched an extension of its headquarters in Saint-Etienne and new buildings for 2 of its subsidiaries in Villefranche-sur-Saône and in Chignin.
For the system to reach full efficiency and be transferable to both the civil waste sorting industry and the nuclear waste sorting application, the technological scale-up of RED LINE is to be fully performed during the project.
Below is the description of the work realized during the first project year, during which we developed and integrated the following functions:
a) Functions in the “nuclearized” waste sorting Robot:
- radioactive classification with additional Alpha, Beta and Gamma sensors to segregate the waste by radioactivity level (High Level, Intermediate Level or Low Level).
- storage optimization of the parts in the containers to minimize the storing occupation space by 25%.
- Nuclearization the system in making each component of the system radiation-proof.
b) Functions for the civil waste sorting Robots :
- Upgrade of the AI-software’s for enhanced waste recognition
- Integrate spectrometer sensor for material detection onto our 2D and 3D Vision systems
- Run a Design to Cost program: Make a simple and affordable system for wide dissemination.
After completion of the second project year, the civil waste sorting prototype has been transfered from the first industrial site to a second site to prove the industrial performances achieved on the first site but in different conditions.
The commercial development also started as a "catalog" machine on the waste sorting market. In the meantime, we have regained our full commercial autonomy and independance. Our previous partner remains a business contractor.
Regarding the nuclear prototype, we have signed a cooperation contract with the CEA as the result of our consultation to find a site to implement the nuclear waste sorting prototype. The chosen site to implement the prototype is at the "CEA Saclay". In the meantime, the technical scale-up and nuclearization of the waste sorting machine was continued. The commercial Development has increased on the nuclear marked. And IP protection of our work regarding our robotised nuclear waste solutions has been initiated.
During this 2nd year, Siléane has also :
- expanded by opening subsidiaries in 3 more cities in France (Bray-sur-Somme and La Roche-sur-Yon and Rennes), conducting the structuring of the company to pursue the goal of growing into a midcap company (200 people at this stage, 40M€ Turnover).
- structured its administrative departments (Finance, Business, Marketing, Communication, HR, Supply, Quality).
- launched an extension of its headquarters in Saint-Etienne and new buildings for 2 of its subsidiaries in Villefranche-sur-Saône and in Chignin.
The progress beyond the state of the art made during the second project year mainly concerns 2 technical issues:
- the gripping technology studies still progressed massively
- the AI technology of Siléane is industrialised for the waste management and now wears the name "Sileane's IA Studio".
The expected results of the project include the capacity of Sileane to bring robots with industrial performance abilities to waste treatment centers of several waste materials.
The objective is to produce these machines in series and offer a robotics product catalog to industrial clients. Design to cost machines integrating high-level technologies shall allow the industrial waste treatment centers to achieve sufficient return on investment when investing in automated solutions.
The objective of the project is also to bring for the first time, an autonomous robot to sort nuclear waste, as industrial equipment to the nuclear companies dealing with unmanaged waste (legacy waste, exploitation waste, dismantling waste).
This is to be a disruption in the nuclear industry, especially as the waste streams are only sorted by operators as of this date.
Through the REDLINE project, we aim at retrieving the operators from unsafe waste treatment streams on the one hand (social and economic impact improdvement), and at optimizing the environmental impact of unsorted/ unmanaged waste through automatic separation and traceability of these waste.
A sorted waste stream can be reused or properly stored.
Through the REDLINE project, Siléane aims also at growing into a major European robotics provider and become a Mid-cap Company with a leading position in the Greentech sector.
- the gripping technology studies still progressed massively
- the AI technology of Siléane is industrialised for the waste management and now wears the name "Sileane's IA Studio".
The expected results of the project include the capacity of Sileane to bring robots with industrial performance abilities to waste treatment centers of several waste materials.
The objective is to produce these machines in series and offer a robotics product catalog to industrial clients. Design to cost machines integrating high-level technologies shall allow the industrial waste treatment centers to achieve sufficient return on investment when investing in automated solutions.
The objective of the project is also to bring for the first time, an autonomous robot to sort nuclear waste, as industrial equipment to the nuclear companies dealing with unmanaged waste (legacy waste, exploitation waste, dismantling waste).
This is to be a disruption in the nuclear industry, especially as the waste streams are only sorted by operators as of this date.
Through the REDLINE project, we aim at retrieving the operators from unsafe waste treatment streams on the one hand (social and economic impact improdvement), and at optimizing the environmental impact of unsorted/ unmanaged waste through automatic separation and traceability of these waste.
A sorted waste stream can be reused or properly stored.
Through the REDLINE project, Siléane aims also at growing into a major European robotics provider and become a Mid-cap Company with a leading position in the Greentech sector.