Flyability’ Elios 3 drones integrate Mirion radiation meters for nuclear sector clients

Flyability, the Swiss company producing indoor drones for a variety of enterprise and industrial applications, says it will now make radiation detection and measurement meters by Mirion Technologies available aboard its Elios 3 UAVs for customers in nuclear activities.

By integrating Mirion’s RDS-32 survey sensors into its Elios 3 indoor drones, Flyability says it will allow clients in nuclear energy and related services to remotely collect accurate radiation measurements and other data for analysis while obviating the need for human monitors to enter affected areas. The company says that information will be fed live to customers as the UAV is in operation and then be stored for use afterward in post-processing.

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The announcement comes just over a month after Flyability deployed Mirion’s sensors aboard an Elios 3 drone to measure radiation levels in a half-century-old nuclear waste vault in Idaho. The company used that mission as a test case for the collection of LiDAR and radiation data inside the facility for its Idaho Environmental Coalition client, which was acting as a contractor for the US Department of Energy.

The trial was one of several Flyability successfully completed for energy company partners in the US and Europe, which verified the effectiveness and safety of drone radiation monitoring using Elios 3 drones equipped with Mirion meters.

“Mirion is a leading provider of radiation sensing technology,” says Patrick Thévoz, CEO of Flyability. “This collaboration will allow Flyability’s customers in the nuclear sector to leverage the very best data collection tools available for their work, helping to significantly reduce the need for workers to be exposed to harmful radiation or to the hazards of confined space entry for the purposes of conducting routine inspections.”

The additional missions performed with its other nuclear power generation company partners substantiated the efficiency of Elios 3 drones carrying Mirion RDS-32 meters to accurately gauge radiation levels during remote flights and provide data necessary for full analysis.

Flyability says the pairing of the tech notably proved its value by detecting and capturing critical information about hot spots on a turbine deck of a multigigawatt plant.

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Alexandre Meldem, Flyability’s managing director of the Americas, believes existing and future clients will welcome the added capabilities Mirion radiation sensors provide Elios 3 drone performances in nuclear facilities.

“Over 80% of US nuclear operators already use Flyability’s indoor drones for their visual inspections,” says Meldem. “The ability to provide these customers with top-of-the-line radiation sensing capabilities, via the agreement with Mirion, will significantly help improve their operations, and present an even greater ability to keep engineers safe by reducing their exposure to radiation. We are really looking forward to seeing this partnership flourish.”