By Ellis Butcher

Last updated at 12:34, Monday, 13 August 2012

Sellafield and university officials have played down reports that they’ve been secretly developing a tiny flying robot to explore highly radioactive nuclear chambers.

A national newspaper said Warwick University had created a specially-made remote-controlled drone to probe hard-to-reach highly toxic silos as part of the site’s long-term clean-up.

The story centred around the Hexakopter, a remotely-operated unmanned aerial vehicle which can fly for 20 minutes and uses lasers and beams-back images.

University officials brushed off the article as being overblown and said its creation was merely a student-sponsored project with no plans for a Sellafield Ltd commission.

The company also appeared to pour cold water on the idea by saying the flying drone is unlikely to take off any time soon.

However, Netherlands company XSENS, a developer and global supplier, reports that Warwick Mobile Robotics, “is a collection of projects under development at the University of Warwick.”

Its websites states: “One of these projects involves the development of an indoor aerial inspection vehicle. This PhD project is sponsored by Sellafield Ltd, and aims to build a prototype UAV to fly inside structurally unsafe, hazardous or radioactive buildings for the purpose of inspecting and identifying hazards.”

The university’s business development manager refused to comment directly except to say the article was “unsympathetic.”

In a statement, Sellafield Ltd said: “We are interested in the potential for the technology to be used as part of our decommissioning mission. No decision has yet been taken as to how useful the hexakopter could potentially be and we are some way from making a decision on whether this could or would be deployed at Sellafield Ltd.

“Often ideas and projects go no further than the development stage.”

First published at 11:25, Monday, 13 August 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk