A robot developed by a UK start-up is helping to locate hazardous radiation sources at the scene of the Fukushima disaster, the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. Createc, a small imaging company based in Cumbria, has developed camera technology called N-Visage for robots that can detect and draw a 3D map of high radiation locations that are too contaminated for human workers. US internet companies including Google and Amazon are making big strides into the robotics industry — estimated to be worth $29bn in 2013 — by focusing on areas such as driverless cars and drones for parcel deliveries. But the deployment of Createc’s N-Visage technology at Fukushima highlights how UK companies are responsible for significant innovation in robotics. British ministers are now considering how the UK can catch up with countries including the US, Japan and South Korea that have established bigger presences in robotics hardware and software. Nuclear companies are turning to robotics as they look to deliver safer, faster and more cost-effective solutions for the £250bn worth of global nuclear decommissioning that is forecast to take place by 2030. Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy, which is leading the clean-up at Fukushima, deployed Createc’s N-Visage camera technology in stair-climbing robots to reach inaccessible areas deep inside the nuclear site. Fukushima was badly damaged by a tsunami in March 2011. N-Visage is the only technology that has the right weight, speediness and capability for high radiation, said a spokesman for International Nuclear Services Japan. “N-Visage is very likely to be deployed not necessarily only at Fukushima but also at other nuclear facilities in Japan,” he said. The N-Visage technology was first used at Britain’s Sellafield, western Europe’s largest nuclear waste site. Operators at Fukushima are now using the N-Visage technology to understand where radioactive material is coming from inside damaged reactors and help plan clean-up strategies. Matt Mellor, Createc’s managing director, said: “They’ve gone from not knowing much at all about many of the areas inside the reactor building to having this really accurate 3D snapshot of what’s there — that’s the crucial thing for decommissioning.” Createc is negotiating to make N-Visage the main system used at Fukushima for the identification of radioactivity. Its robot was used in three reactions between February and August last year. The company has also signed a contract with the Japanese government to begin the development of a camera designed to go all the way into reactors’ cores and record images. Sylvain Du Tremblay, chief technical and engineering officer at Sellafield, believes the adoption of N-Visage at Fukushima shows the UK can lead in robotics technology for the nuclear industry. “We are using Sellafield facilities that are waiting to be dismantled to test and validate new technologies,” he said.