A TEAM of top industrial, aerospace and aviation experts, which includes Sellafield Limited, has won a share of the Government’s £30 million challenge fund to develop a remotely operated drone system.

The cutting edge drone system would be instrumental in inspections of nuclear sites. It will also come in handy on constructions sites, oil and gas installations and railway maintenance. The consortium testing and developing the system, of which Sellafield is a member, also includes BAE Systems, Atkins, Skanska, NATS and Vodafone.

They will be led by drone command and control solution developer, Sees.ai Mark Foster, Head of Specialist Equipment Services, Sellafield Ltd, said: “This new technology has huge potential for our future operations; making our work safer, faster and more cost effective.”

Funding to undertake the project comes from the Future Flight Challenge a Phase Two competition from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund delivered by UK Research and Innovation

“The specialist equipment services 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.”