The XS-ABILITY project is a cornerstone of the European Union’s Horizon EURATOM research program, driving innovation in how nuclear sites are safely and efficiently dismantled. Throughout Europe, the ageing of numerous plants and research facilities brings an urgent need for advanced decommissioning solutions. Removing hazardous radioactive materials from these complex environments remains one of the modern era’s foremost engineering challenges. Safeguarding people and the environment, while controlling costs and planning for multi-decade timelines, demands new thinking at every level.
At its heart, XS-ABILITY is reimagining nuclear decommissioning through an autonomous ecosystem powered by robotics, artificial intelligence, and digital modeling. By integrating fleets of advanced ground and aerial robots equipped with miniaturized nuclear sensors and cutting-edge AI, the project empowers safer, smarter, and faster operations. These robots operate independently in hazardous areas, mapping contamination, collecting data, and enabling detailed site characterization, essential steps for effective cleanup and risk management.
A standout innovation of XS-ABILITY is the deployment of multiple types of robotic platforms, wheeled, legged, and aerial, each loaded with specialized sensors to detect and analyze a variety of radiological hazards. These rugged systems can traverse restricted and challenging terrains, providing in situ analysis with previously unmatched precision. Sophisticated mission-planning software and data fusion algorithms enable robots to collaborate and adapt in real time, creating high-fidelity 3D maps and actionable insights for operators and decision-makers.
Collaboration and joint expertise are central to XS-ABILITY’s approach. Nuclear specialists, engineers, regulatory agencies, technology developers, and stakeholders across seven countries join forces through frequent workshops, testing, and feedback cycles. This multidimensional consortium quickly accelerates innovation, solves practical challenges, and ensures alignment with industrial and regulatory realities.
The Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) serves as the technical lead for the XS-ABILITY project, orchestrating the scientific vision and ensuring the seamless integration of its cutting-edge innovations. IFE's robotics and sensor teams make vital contributions across three interrelated work packages: they design and produce compact, highly sensitive nuclear sensors for detecting a broad spectrum of radiological signals in difficult-to-reach locations (WP2); they oversee the integration of these advanced sensors into mobile robotic platforms, guaranteeing the accuracy and reliability of real-time data collection and communication (WP3); and, as leaders of multi-robot integration (WP4), they develop collaborative protocols and mission planning algorithms that enable autonomous robots to work together, adapt to changing environments, and carry out complex tasks such as mapping, sampling, and site intervention.
Major achievements so far include robust autonomous robots capable of real-time radiological data collection and dynamic digital twin updates, advanced mapping and characterization of nuclear spaces with multi-modal sensors, and successful demonstrations of AI-driven multi-robot operation in complex, hazardous scenarios. XS-ABILITY also emphasizes safety and security, with rigorous evaluation of operational and cyber risks to ensure trustworthiness and compliance with European standards.
Looking ahead, XS-ABILITY’s trajectory is toward full-scale real-world demonstrators. Upcoming activities involve integrating next-generation sensors with robotics, expanding AI-powered optimization for missions, and refining hands-free reporting tools. Digital twin environments will continue evolving, facilitating smarter predictions and richer visualization for planning and risk assessment.
XS-ABILITY blends precision engineering, intelligent modeling, and the collaborative strength of its European partners to deliver transformative support tools for nuclear decommissioning. Its vision reaches beyond nuclear dismantling, its promising methods, data protocols, and technologies are applicable to oil and gas decommissioning, hazardous industrial cleanup, and emergency response.
Ultimately, XS-ABILITY represents a leap in how Europe manages its nuclear legacy. By prioritizing responsibility, transparency, and sustainability, it ensures that decommissioning is performed with greater safety, efficiency, and community confidence, making a safer future for all.
The XS-ABILITY project aims to develop advanced robotic solutions by embedding various types of sensors to address
remaining challenges in D&D as remote and mobile investigation of hard-to-access areas and difficult-to-measure
radionuclides characterization, in innovative, safe and cost-effective ways.
The project innovations are related to nuclear instrumentation (accurate and compact sensors), their integration onto robotic platforms as well as Data-driven (through IA algorithms) robot fleet management by considering accuracy, compactness, automation, and cost-efficient aspects. To achieve this goal, the consortium will develop all the necessary subcomponents.
The demonstration will be achieved by integrating all the XS-ABILITY developments and testing (mainly in indoor environment) throughout use cases scenarios on real D&D facilities to assess in-situ performances and to acquire data in real experimental conditions.
The consortium behind XS-ABILITY is a unique combination of cross-functional experts from nuclear instrumentation,
robotic and artificial intelligence (AI) fields. It consists of 8 partners from 7 EU countries, including 4 RTO (CEA, IFE,
VTT, SCK), 2 SME (CAEN, FLY), 1 industrial company (SIGM) and 1 association (DEV) representative of the whole
value chain. Workshops with stakeholders will be organized to guide the XS-ABILITY consortium during the
project’s main steps.
The innovative solutions provided by the project will be exploited in Dismantling & Decommissioning, Nuclear Power
Plant Monitoring & Maintenance market, sensor and CBRN-E defense markets. The enhanced knowledge generated
will be disseminated to all these stakeholders according to the D&E&C measures defined. Furthermore, on the basis of
the project demonstrations, guidelines covering multi-robot systems behavior in indoor environment, data collection
protocols as well as best practice harmonization will be developed showing how to effectively deploy in real D&D
scenarios.
