Revizto inspires the next generation of nuclear engineers

Whether you want to improve your nuclear design engineering skills or project management of radioactive waste and nuclear materials and pursue it as a career, the Revizto software can help.
Sellafield‘s Digital Engineering Assurance Lead for major nuclear projects delivery, Paul Whitworth explains why Revizto has been chosen for their ‘Sellafield Young Nuclear Design Engineer Work Experience’ programme and how students were deploying the software during this programme.

Revizto at the core of the ‘Sellafield Young Nuclear Design Engineer Work Experience’

During the multi-disciplined work experience program, within the civil & structural module, each of the students produces calculations to design a crane beam that is carrying EOT crane that transports flasks holding hazardous waste. This is followed up by using Autodesk Revit to edit the steel beams in the model to the new section size they have designed. This is then taken into Revizto via Navisworks where the students then use the VR to walk down the facility and investigate any issues that may have created by updating the beams in the federated model with the HVAC, Mechanical and Electrical items. This also enables us to take the VR Laptop & Oculus into school & college career events for the student to move around and see the scale and complexity of a nuclear facility.

About Sellafield Ltd.

Sellafield has been nearly 70 years in the making. A pioneer for the UK’s nuclear industry, it supported national defense, generated electricity for nearly half a century, and developed the ability to safely manage nuclear waste. In 1947, the Sellafield site opened with a single mission – the production of plutonium, a radioactive chemical element for use in Britain’s nuclear deterrent. As the nation’s priorities shifted, pioneers at the site:

• designed and built the world’s first commercial-sized nuclear power station
• recycled nuclear fuel so that both plutonium and uranium, another chemical element, could be recovered and reused
• created safe treatment and storage options for all types of nuclear waste

Today the Sellafield site presents one of the most significant environmental remediation challenges in Europe, covering 6 square kilometers and is home to more than 200 nuclear facilities and the largest inventory of untreated nuclear waste in the world.

A simple and quick workflow

Revizto has created a simple, quick workflow that enhances the students engineering understanding of what unique challenges Sellafield face in decommissioning high hazard facilities and making the site safer sooner. The students experience now satisfies the company’s requirements to inspire and inform young people in order to develop the pipeline to address the skills needs of the engineering sector which remains a key challenge.

For us Revizto provides a swift, consistent, powerful immersive 3D VR experience that is helping us inspire the next generation of nuclear engineers whilst having the potential to enable Sellafield Limited’s workforce to the use fit-for-purpose technology to make the most of the Digital Engineering Projects and Programmes.

Paul Whitworth

Digital Engineering Assurance Lead

Sellafield Ltd.

Clear vision of the future

By informing and inspiring the students with technology and also giving them information in respect to the opportunities available to them aligned to their STEM interests the experience now leaves the students with a clear understanding of the businesses unique, exciting and rewarding challenges along with a clear vision of the future. As the multi-disciplinary program provides a number of challenging design tasks based on a real Sellafield problem which is designed to develop the individuals by providing insight into Process, Mechanical, Control, Electrical & Instrumentation and Civil & Structural Engineering Design by now incorporating this industry-leading digital technology they leave with greater engineering understanding and new skills.

Virtual Reality in one click

We did investigate using the proprietary software (steam VR ) with HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift but this would require extensive training and also the time and efforts to produce the VR model was not achievable. Using Revizto it is a one button press that is consistent in delivering the VR experience. We have now purchased 10 commercial licenses to roll out on major projects and plan to use during the design stages and also with the plant installation teams, training and future decommissioning projects.

Powerful immersive experience to inspire young nuclear engineers

For us, Revizto provides a swift, consistent, powerful immersive 3D VR experience that is helping us inspire the next generation of nuclear engineers whilst having the potential to enable Sellafield Limited’s workforce to the use fit-for-purpose technology to make the most of the Digital Engineering Projects and Programmes.

Exploring a model in Revizto’s immersive 3D VR environment		Tomorrow engineers, Sellafield Work Experience students, supporting INWE18		New Engineering Design Educational Nucleus (EDEN) to help inspire and inform the next generation