Sellafield says it has played a key role in a consortium of industrial, aerospace and aviation firms that have won a share of a £30m Government fund to develop a remotely operated drone system.

It’s hoped the system will eventually allow the remote monitoring of nuclear sites plus a range of other industrial applications.

The consortium is led by specialist drone firm, sees.ai, and includes BAE Systems, Atkins, Skanska, NATS, Vodafone plus a number of others.

Mark Foster, head of specialist equipment services at Sellafield said: “The team provides engineering and maintenance support to the whole of Sellafield and we continually seek out areas of innovation to improve services on our complex and congested site. This new technology has huge potential for our future operations, making our work safer, faster and more cost effective.

“We’re proud to be at the forefront of a national challenge and our experienced team, together with our local supply chain partners, is demonstrating every day how we can truly make a difference for our mission and beyond.”

The funding comes from the Future Flight Challenge, part of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund delivered by UK Research and Innovation.

This is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Sellafield will not receive any funding, but it will offer a test site for the technology and already has its own team of experienced drone pilots.

Peter Allport, remote handling lead at Sellafield, said: “This technology has the potential to revolutionise how we use drones at Sellafield.

“This helps ensure we are always using the best technology so we can continuously improve our service to the Sellafield site.”