The UK and Japan have signed a robotics collaboration to automate fusion energy production for nuclear decommissioning.

In what the two countries call a "world-leading alliance", the £12m robotics project "LongOps" will support faster and safer decommissioning by using long-distance robotic arms at the UK's Sellafield and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors. In Japan, work is still ongoing after the tsunami hit the plant in March 2011.

"Ten years have passed since the Fukushima Daiichi accident," said Akira Ono, chief retired officer of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which operates the plant.

"The decontamination and decommissioning of TEPCO was initially carried out on an emergency response basis, but now we will enter the phase of challenges in uncharted areas, such as the recovery of fuel debris.

Robotics and remote control "are one of the most important critical success factors for successful fuel fragmentation," he said.

The four-year research collaboration will be funded equally by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Agency and Tokyo Electric Power Company.

The collaboration is also expected to bring immediate benefits such as employment opportunities, the development of 'fusion-adjacent' technologies and increased UK and Japanese scientific and engineering capabilities.

The decommissioning of legacy nuclear and fusion facilities is a complex and large-scale project that takes a significant amount of time to complete safely.

Robotics and digital twins will play a vital role in the effective implementation of these technologies without compromising human health.

A key feature of the LongOps initiative will be the deployment of sophisticated digital twins - virtual models, where the pairing of the virtual and physical worlds allows for highly detailed analysis of data and prediction of potential maintenance and operational issues.

The software will show how such machines can be controlled in real time during remote operation.

The LongOps development will also be applied to the upgrade, maintenance and dismantling of fusion equipment such as the Joint European Ring (JET) once its useful life is over.

LongOps forms part of the government's £450m investment in Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) projects since 2014.

Adrian Simper, director of group strategy and technology at the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, said robotics "gives us new ways to tackle complex jobs safely, safely and economically".

"This unique international collaboration allows us to bring together Japanese expertise and experience to work together and invest in state-of-the-art methods to find solutions to the problems we share and benefit our cleanup mission."

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