# Spot at Sellafield, Cumbria, United Kingdom: deployment

Canonical ID: `3b7bfe00-6482-4fbb-949e-ee75063a5160`

Sellafield Ltd has used a [Boston Dynamics Spot](/models/boston-dynamics-spot.md) quadruped, customised for nuclear work by [Createc](/companies/createc.md), to support decommissioning at the Sellafield site in Cumbria. A three-day trial ran in Calder Hall's former turbine hall in 2021 (reported September 2021). Use cases were demonstrated in 2022 and 2023, the first deployment in a C5 (highly radiological) area followed in 2023/24, and in 2025 Sellafield and AtkinsRealis operated the robot from Westlakes Science Park, outside the licensed site boundary. In February 2026 a RAICo-developed swabbing tool mounted on [Spot](/companies/boston-dynamics.md) was trialled on a simulated spill. In April 2026 Sellafield said it would move the robots from trial activity into routine operations over the next two years. No robot count is published.

## Key facts

- **Country:** [United Kingdom](/locations/united-kingdom-3.md)
- **Sector:** Nuclear decommissioning
- **Operator:** Sellafield Ltd
- **Integrators:** [Createc](/companies/createc.md) (customisation, deployment, maintenance); AtkinsRealis (systems integration)
- **Tasks:** Inspection, mapping, gamma and alpha characterisation, swabbing, sample collection
- **Milestones:** 2021 trial; 2023/24 first C5-area deployment; 2025 off-site [teleoperation](/glossary/teleoperation.md); 2026 swabbing trial
- **Status:** Moving from trial to routine operations over two years from April 2026 (company-stated)
- **Scale:** [Not disclosed](/companies/not-disclosed.md)

**Trust tier:** Unverified

_Last updated: 2026-10-26_

- **Slug:** spot-sellafield-ltd-cumbria-uk
- **Status:** operational
- **Model:** [Spot](/models/boston-dynamics-spot.md) (id: `223bb4ff-a2d7-4afd-825d-f6b15c34afa9`)
- **Category:** [Quadrupeds](/quadrupeds)
- **Company:** [Boston Dynamics](/companies/boston-dynamics.md) (id: `e07a6384-c6a0-4a69-8abe-7fcea11bc302`)
- **Location:** [Sellafield, Cumbria, United Kingdom](/locations/united-kingdom/sellafield-cumbria-uk.md) (id: `ccfc8c06-341c-435a-9e6c-03c69f76eb73`)
- **First seen:** 2021-09-09T00:00:00.000Z

## Verification log (0, append-only)

_No verifications recorded._

## Sources (4)

1. **Spot goes nuclear** · https://constructionmanagement.co.uk/spot-goes-nuclear/ · 2021-09-09
2. **Remotely operated robot deployed at Sellafield** · https://world-nuclear-news.org/articles/remotely-operated-robot-deployed-at-sellafield · 2025-03-18
3. **Sellafield trials robot swabbing tech** · https://www.neimagazine.com/news/sellafield-trials-robot-swabbing-tech/ · 2026-02-13
4. **How robot dogs are helping to clean up Sellafield** · https://www.bindt.org/News/april-2026/how-robot-dogs-are-helping-to-clean-up-sellafield/ · 2026-04-23

## Common questions

### What is the Spot deployment at Sellafield, Cumbria, United Kingdom?

[Spot](/models/boston-dynamics-spot.md), built by [Boston Dynamics](/companies/boston-dynamics.md), is recorded as a deployment at [Sellafield, Cumbria, United Kingdom](/locations/sellafield-cumbria-uk.md) on the DEPLOY registry. [Boston Dynamics](/companies/boston-dynamics.md) operates the deployment directly.

### Who operates Spot at Sellafield, Cumbria, United Kingdom?

[Boston Dynamics](/companies/boston-dynamics.md), the manufacturer of [Spot](/models/boston-dynamics-spot.md), operates this deployment directly. This is a maker-deploys-its-own-product arrangement rather than a customer pilot.

### When did the Spot deployment at Sellafield, Cumbria, United Kingdom go live?

The deployment is recorded as starting September 9, 2021 on the DEPLOY registry. Earlier activity may exist but is not yet sourced.

### Have there been incidents at the Spot deployment at Sellafield, Cumbria, United Kingdom?

No active incidents affecting this deployment are recorded on the DEPLOY registry. Absence of recorded incidents is not a guarantee no incident occurred; DEPLOY records only sourced incidents and suppresses retracted ones.


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