Nuclear projects often face pressure long before construction begins. Decisions made early can shape cost, schedule, and acceptance outcomes months or years later. When key assumptions remain untested, teams may encounter rework, delays, or gaps in validation evidence.
Pre-automation brings process definition, technical risk assessment, and validation planning into the earliest project stages. This approach helps teams make more informed decisions before design and build begin, where changes are easier to manage and less likely to disrupt delivery.
This approach supports a wide range of nuclear applications, including refurbishment, operations and maintenance, small modular reactor programs, and decommissioning projects. In each case, tooling and automation systems must perform reliably under strict operating and regulatory expectations.
The Challenges We Address with Pre-Automation
Understanding the factors that can slow progress or introduce risk.
Late Design Changes that Disrupt Schedules
Late-stage changes often lead to rework during design, integration, or site acceptance. Pre-automation shifts key decisions earlier, which helps reduce schedule pressure during later phases.
Unproven or Unclear Process Steps
When process steps are not fully defined, automation design may rely on assumptions. Pre-automation clarifies how each step works and identifies areas that require validation.
Risk Hidden Inside Complex Systems
Tooling and automation systems often include multiple interfaces, controls, and site constraints. Pre-automation helps identify technical risks earlier, so teams can plan mitigation strategies before procurement decisions are finalized.
Misalignment Across Stakeholders and Disciplines
Nuclear projects involve coordination across engineering disciplines and stakeholders. Pre-automation creates shared definitions, requirements, and test expectations to support clearer communication and smoother handoffs.
Validation and Documentation Needs Defined too Late
When validation planning is deferred, testing and documentation can become compressed into the final stages. Pre-automation integrates these requirements earlier, helping ensure that evidence and documentation align throughout the project.
Our Approach
Practical pre-automation services that help teams define, test, and align before the build phases begin.
Design for Manufacturability
Reduce Rework by Aligning Design with Fabrication and Inspection Requirements
Design reviews help identify details that could affect manufacturability, tolerances, or inspection effort. Recommendations focus on improving repeatability and creating clearer verification paths for nuclear tooling and automation components.
Concept Development and Simulation
Evaluate Concepts with Early Performance Insights
Simulation models material flows, layouts, and station interactions in a virtual environment. This allows teams to identify bottlenecks and coordination issues earlier, before design decisions are finalized.
Proof of Principle Studies
Test High-Risk Process Steps Under Controlled Conditions
These studies evaluate whether key steps perform as expected under controlled conditions. The results help inform design direction, subsequent testing approaches, and requirements documentation.
Validation Planning
Define How Requirements Will Be Verified From the Start
Validation planning outlines how functional, performance, and safety requirements will be tested and documented. This helps maintain traceability and reduces late-stage schedule pressure tied to incomplete evidence.
Key Benefits
The advantages of partnering with us.
Earlier Risk Visibility
Identify technical risks and missing inputs sooner, which helps reduce rework during integration and site activities.
Clearer Technical Direction Before Capital Decisions
Simulation, manufacturability reviews, and proof of principle results provide stronger inputs before procurement and build decisions.
Improved Schedule Control
Early definition and identification of requirements, risk, and validation plans helps reduce compression of testing and documentation activities later in the project.
Better Alignment Across Disciplines
Shared inputs across design, controls, testing, and safety reduce interpretation gaps and support more consistent handoffs.
Stronger Acceptance Readiness
Early validation planning helps teams prepare for factory and site acceptance testing with clearer expectations for verification and documentation.
Applications
Pre-automation supports nuclear programs across multiple lifecycle stages. Early clarification of requirements and risk helps reduce late changes across tooling, controls, and site integration.
Refurbishment and Life-Extension Outage Tooling
Reduce late design changes by defining requirements, reviewing manufacturing constraints, and validating high-risk steps before execution plans are finalized. This approach supports stronger execution readiness for complex refurbishment projects.
Operations and Maintenance System Upgrades
Plan upgrades that align with existing systems and site constraints. Early risk assessment and validation planning help reduce integration challenges and support smoother acceptance phases.
Decommissioning, Segmentation, and Waste Handling Workflows
Reduce schedule risk by validating tooling concepts, process steps, and documentation expectations early, before build decisions lock. Pre-automation supports early risk identification for complex remote tooling workflows.
Fuel Fabrication, Assembly, and Test Systems
Support early alignment of automation and inspection requirements. Proof-of-principle work helps confirm process steps and define validation expectations before design progresses.
Ready to Reduce Risk Before Design and Build Begins?
Connect with ATS Nuclear Energy Solutions to discuss how pre-automation can support your next nuclear tooling or automation project.