# Does Immersive VR Cut Hazardous Exposure in Nuclear Decommissioning?

A 360-degree immersive environment installed at the RAICo1 facility in Whitehaven, Cumbria, is expected to cut the time workers spend in hazardous areas by up to 40%, according to AtkinsRéalis, which developed the capability in partnership with Sellafield Ltd and immersive technology specialist Igloo Vision. The system accommodates up to ten users simultaneously and integrates remotely operated robotics with live data streaming, allowing multidisciplinary teams to walk a digital replica of a restricted area — complete with real-time imagery from robotic platforms already on site — before a single person enters the physical environment.

The RAICo1 facility itself was launched in 2022 as the first node in a planned network of robotics and AI collaboration hubs across the UK. It is a joint initiative between Sellafield Ltd and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, built in collaboration with the UK Atomic Energy Authority, the University of Manchester, and the National Nuclear Laboratory. The new immersive environment represents a significant capability addition to that existing infrastructure, and follows earlier work by AtkinsRéalis delivering a comparable immersive facility for Sellafield Ltd at Hinton House in Risley, Cheshire.

For the UK's decades-long Sellafield decommissioning programme — among the most technically demanding in global nuclear — any tool that measurably reduces worker dose and decision latency carries serious operational and financial weight.

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## What the RAICo1 Immersive Environment Actually Does

The system is not a conventional simulation suite. AtkinsRéalis describes its role as integrating Igloo Vision's immersive platform with Sellafield Ltd's existing digital information and operational architecture — meaning the environment pulls in live data from robotic platforms already deployed on site, rather than running purely synthetic scenarios.

The practical workflow is sequential: a planning team enters the 360-degree space, reviews live conditions streamed from robotic cameras inside a restricted zone, walks the virtual route collaboratively, identifies hazards, and agrees on a safe work sequence — before any crew member enters the physical area. Emerging issues during active operations can also be routed back into the collaborative space for rapid team response.

The facility supports up to ten users in a single session, a design choice that enables genuine multidisciplinary engagement — radiological protection advisors, mechanical engineers, remote operations specialists and project managers can inhabit the same planning space simultaneously rather than reviewing sequential briefing documents.

Richard Brook, Digital Solutions Lead for Nuclear at AtkinsRéalis, framed the value plainly: "Teams can better visualise challenges and work through solutions together before activities begin on site. What's particularly innovative is the way we're bringing immersive technology and robotics together in one place."

This is a meaningful distinction from standalone digital twin deployments. Many decommissioning programmes have adopted digital twins for asset management or dose modelling, but the integration of live robotic feeds into a shared immersive environment for real-time collaborative planning is a more operationally demanding proposition — and, if it delivers on the 40% figure, a more consequential one.

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## RAICo1's Broader Role in UK Decommissioning Strategy

The RAICo1 facility in Whitehaven is positioned as a proving ground for technology that will ultimately be needed at Sellafield and comparable sites. Its testing infrastructure — including environments that mirror Sellafield-specific conditions such as gloveboxes and water tanks — means new robotic and AI systems can be validated without the regulatory overhead and dose burden of testing directly on the nuclear site.

Rav Chunilal, Head of Robotics and AI at Sellafield Ltd, highlighted the cumulative nature of this capability build: "We've spent the last few years building capability across robotics, AI, digital twins and remote operations, and this is another important step on that journey."

That framing matters for the broader industry. Sellafield's decommissioning challenge is not a short-cycle programme — it spans generations, involves some of the most radiologically complex legacy facilities in the world, and has historically been constrained by the simple problem of information access: workers cannot spend unlimited time in restricted areas gathering the data needed to plan the next task. Any technology stack that decouples planning fidelity from worker dose accumulation directly addresses that constraint.

The involvement of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority as a founding partner of RAICo1, alongside academic institutions and the National Nuclear Laboratory, also signals an intent to transfer validated capability across the UK's wider decommissioning estate — not just Sellafield.

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## Skeptical Read: What the 40% Figure Does Not Tell Us

The 40% reduction in hazardous environment time is the headline number, but AtkinsRéalis has not published the baseline methodology or the scenarios against which that figure was calculated. It is not clear whether this is derived from modelled projections, early operational data from the Hinton House deployment, or a more general industry benchmark.

That matters because decommissioning work is highly task-specific. A 40% reduction in entry time for a well-characterised glove-box retrieval task may not translate proportionally to poorly characterised legacy ponds work where the planning inputs themselves are uncertain. The immersive environment improves pre-task planning quality — but it does not resolve the underlying challenge of incomplete radiological characterisation in some of Sellafield's most difficult facilities.

For buyers of this kind of technology across the global decommissioning market — including US Department of Energy sites, European legacy facilities, and post-shutdown commercial reactors — the Sellafield deployment will be watched closely as a reference case. Independently audited dose reduction data from actual operations would substantially strengthen the commercial case.

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## Industry Trajectory: Digital Tools and the Decommissioning Workforce

The RAICo1 immersive environment sits within a broader shift in how the nuclear industry approaches [decay heat](https://smrintel.com/glossary/decay-heat) management, remote characterisation, and decommissioning planning — a shift driven partly by workforce constraints. Experienced decommissioning personnel are finite, and minimising their time in restricted areas is both a safety imperative and a resource allocation decision.

The integration of robotics, AI-assisted monitoring, and immersive collaboration tools is creating a workflow model where fewer, more senior personnel make decisions informed by richer data — rather than requiring repeated physical access for verification. This mirrors trends in autonomous systems development more broadly; for readers tracking humanoid robotics and autonomous systems in industrial settings, [humanoidintel.ai](https://humanoidintel.ai) covers adjacent capability developments that are beginning to intersect with nuclear remote operations.

For SMR developers planning [first-of-a-kind (FOAK)](https://smrintel.com/glossary/foak) builds, the decommissioning workflow problem is not yet urgent — but it will be. Building digital twin and remote operations capability into reactor design from the outset, rather than retrofitting it decades later, is a lesson the legacy fleet is demonstrating at significant cost.

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## Key Takeaways

- AtkinsRéalis, Sellafield Ltd, and Igloo Vision have deployed a 10-user, 360-degree immersive environment at the RAICo1 facility in Whitehaven, Cumbria.
- The system integrates live robotic feeds with immersive visualisation, targeting up to 40% reduction in time workers spend in hazardous environments.
- RAICo1 was launched in 2022 as the UK's first robotics and AI collaboration hub, jointly developed by Sellafield Ltd, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, UK Atomic Energy Authority, University of Manchester, and the National Nuclear Laboratory.
- The project builds on AtkinsRéalis's prior immersive facility delivery for Sellafield Ltd at Hinton House in Risley, Cheshire.
- The 40% reduction figure lacks published methodology; independent operational validation will be the key commercial proof point for wider adoption.
- The capability model — decoupling planning fidelity from worker dose — is directly applicable to decommissioning programmes globally and to future SMR end-of-life planning.

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## Frequently Asked Questions

**What is the RAICo1 facility and where is it located?**
RAICo1 — the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Collaboration facility — is located in Whitehaven, Cumbria, northwest England. Launched in 2022, it is a joint initiative between Sellafield Ltd and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, developed with the UK Atomic Energy Authority, the University of Manchester, and the National Nuclear Laboratory. It serves as a testbed for robotics and AI technologies needed to decommission Sellafield and similar sites.

**How does the immersive environment reduce worker dose in nuclear decommissioning?**
The system allows teams of up to ten people to enter a 360-degree digital replica of a restricted facility area, viewing live imagery streamed from robotic platforms already on site. By resolving planning questions, identifying hazards, and agreeing on safe work sequences before anyone enters the physical restricted zone, the technology reduces the number and duration of entries into radiologically hazardous environments. AtkinsRéalis states this approach is expected to reduce hazardous environment time by up to 40%.

**Who developed the Sellafield immersive decommissioning environment?**
AtkinsRéalis led the engineering integration, combining Igloo Vision's immersive platform with Sellafield Ltd's digital information and operational systems. Igloo Vision provided the 360-degree visualisation technology; Sellafield Ltd defined operational requirements. AtkinsRéalis had previously delivered a similar immersive facility for Sellafield Ltd at Hinton House in Risley, Cheshire.

**Is this technology applicable beyond Sellafield?**
Yes. The RAICo1 facility is designed to develop technology applicable across the UK's wider decommissioning estate, and the underlying approach — integrating live robotics feeds with immersive collaborative planning — is relevant to any decommissioning programme where restricted access constrains planning quality. US Department of Energy legacy sites and post-shutdown commercial reactors face structurally similar challenges.

**What are the limitations of the 40% hazard reduction claim?**
AtkinsRéalis has not published the baseline scenarios, task types, or measurement methodology behind the 40% figure. The benefit is likely task-dependent and will be most pronounced for well-characterised work where the primary bottleneck is planning rather than characterisation uncertainty. Independent operational data from actual Sellafield deployments will be needed before the figure can be treated as a general benchmark.