We are delighted to welcome Emma Williams to the Cerberus Nuclear team!
Emma is an experienced nuclear criticality safety specialist with over a decade of experience in the UK nuclear sector. She recently joined Cerberus Nuclear following a role as a Senior Criticality Safety Consultant at the UK National Nuclear Laboratory (UKNNL). Emma has provided criticality safety support to a wide range of nuclear programmes across fuel manufacture, enrichment, decommissioning and advanced materials research.
Emma is looking forward to playing a key role in supporting Cerberus Nuclear clients. Welcome aboard Emma!
Cerberus at Space-Comm
Cerberus Nuclear recently sent Tom, Nathan and Thomas to Space-Comm Expo Europe in London at the start of March. Debuting the Materials in Orbital Radiation Environments (MORED) tool, which is now available on our website, we also had the chance to talk radiation protection and simulation with a whole host of attending companies.
This was our first space sector conference with a stand, and we were blown away by just how busy we found ourselves. Turns out there is quite a bit of radiation in space!
We ended up having talks with universities and education programmes about how MORED could be used to improve student’s understanding of radiation impacts and a whole host of in-depth discussions on the modelling of electronic components, sub-assemblies, and even whole satellites in radiation environments.
On the second day of the conference, Thomas spoke at the UK Space Cluster Network’s SME Innovation Showcase, alongside 4 other companies who had been awarded funding via the UK Space Agency’s Space Ecosystem Commercialisation Programme (SECP). MORED was received warmly and we look forward to building our relationship with our local space cluster and the wider UK Space ecosystem.
It was also a pleasure to hear how other companies had made use of the SECP funding and there were even some talks about how we could support each other in future endeavours.
Cerberus Nuclear is now discussing how we can support several prospective client’s radiation related needs and putting together longer-term plans to increase what we can offer the space sector in terms of radiation modelling.
What Riding in a Waymo Made Me Think About Trust and AI
After coming back from WM2026 in Phoenix, AZ, I found myself reflecting on something slightly unexpected from the trip.
John and I had a good week collaborating with Lucideon and presenting our Gamma-Crete™ work, which led to some useful discussions around shielding performance in radiation transport and the potential for more efficient packaging approaches.
Alongside that, we also used the time away to continue developing Cyclone Sage, the AI assistant we are building for Cyclone at Orthrus Software. So by the time we were heading home, I was already thinking quite hard about AI systems, how people respond to them, and what sort of trust we should be asking of them.
While we were in Phoenix, we used a Waymo. As it was John’s first time in one, he got the full “wow” factor straight from the airport. That reaction is easy to understand. Sitting in a car with no driver still feels rather strange for the first few minutes. The steering wheel moves, the vehicle slows for traffic, people cross the road ahead, and some part of you still expects to see someone in the front taking control. But what struck me was how quickly that feeling wore off. The ride became normal far quicker than you might expect.
That was probably why my mind drifted back to an earlier Waymo trip I had in Austin during the ANS NCSD conference. What stayed with me from both experiences was the system behaviour rather than the novelty. The vehicles were cautious in a very deliberate way. If it wasn't sure whether someone was about to cross the road, it would come to a full stop rather than force the judgement. You quickly realise that the system is operating with a different logic to a confident human driver. From a safety point of view, that caution makes complete sense, even if it does not always feel natural in the way human driving often does.
There is obviously lots of rigorous testing, measurement, and assurance that is required to get to this point, but it does highlight that this alone is not what people ultimately respond to. Trust is shaped just as much by how a system behaves in context as by how it is validated on paper.
What was just as interesting was the way people around them reacted. In Austin, at our hotel, the concierge tried to shoo one away as it pulled in, despite the fact that it had positioned itself perfectly to pick us up. That moment stuck with me because it showed that the question is not only whether the vehicle can do the job, but how people feel about it doing the job. A system may be operating properly, but that does not always mean people welcome it. In fact, some of the locals did not seem to like them at all. So the trust issue is not only technical, it is fundamentally social as well.
Trust, Behaviour and People's reactions
At the airport pick-up and drop-off in Phoenix it was very busy. Human drivers were everywhere, Waymos moved through the same space, and there was the usual airport chaos where nobody hangs around and everyone is in their own world. However, John and I both noticed that Waymos still behaved in a very algorithmic way. You could see they were making predictions about what other cars were doing, but their predictions were not human in the way an experienced taxi driver’s instincts are. There were moments when I found it was easier read the behaviour of other drivers than the system.
At the same time, our Waymo handled the situation very well. It had clear 360-degree spatial awareness, and you could see that it knew exactly where it could and couldn't fit. So although its judgement did not feel human, and although its behaviour was still recognisably algorithmic, it was still very effective. That, to me, is much more interesting than simply saying the technology is impressive. Comparing Waymo trips in Austin and Phoenix, its also clear the technology is improving, but it is improving in its own way rather than by becoming more like a "human driver".
This highlights an important point, human beings are far more complex than these systems. A good taxi driver can read tone, body language, local driving habits and all sorts of context while simultaneously having a conversation with a passenger. In many situations, a good human driver is still much better at judging what is really going on. But human beings can also be distractible, inconsistent, tired, impatient, and sometimes wrong, which is when accidents can happen. The more useful design question is what kind of trust an autonomous system should earn, and on what basis?
In Waymo’s case, trust works a little different from many other AI systems because the vehicle is not just advising you. It is acting in the world on your behalf, and everyone around it has to respond to that behaviour in real time. What people react to is not the underlying model or training data, but how the car behaves. Does it feel safe, predictable, and cautious? In other words, the challenge is not just making the system capable, but making it trustworthy.
Waymo driving off on its way to pick up another passenger
Why it made me think about Cyclone Sage
That is what brought me back to Cyclone Sage. Waymo and Sage clearly do very different things. One is an autonomous system operating in the physical world, while the other is an AI assistant intended to support engineers working with MCNP. The domains are very different, and in some ways the challenge for Sage is even less tidy because an MCNP input is highly complex and open-ended. Its not a bounded control problem involving simple inputs, i.e., steering, braking, acceleration, and indicators.
Despite the obvious differences, I have found myself thinking about a related design issue, which is how you build a system for humans to use and trust without encouraging the wrong kind of trust. In the world of radiation shielding and criticality, trust matters enormously because the consequences of getting things wrong can be significant. That does not mean Sage is like an autonomous vehicle, but it does mean the mindset around safety, visibility, and responsibility has to be taken seriously.
This mindset has shaped how we are developing Cyclone Sage. The aim is not to hide complexity or replace engineering judgement with something that sounds fluent. It is to support the workflow in a way that gives engineers more time to make the right decisions. MCNP model building and QA can be slow and cognitively heavy. Input decks are text-based and fragile, and small errors in geometry, materials, sources or physics settings can have significant consequences. In practice, engineers often work from previous inputs, inherit assumptions, and spend a lot of effort in checking.
Cyclone Sage is currently being designed and built with that balance in mind, keeping human oversight firmly in view. We have not hidden the syntax from the user, and we are not treating the system as a black box. The design is built around guided authoring, visible outputs, constrained generation, and traceability, with the user remaining firmly in control rather than the system quietly taking over.
That is also why I do not see AI as a means of removing the engineer from the process. Instead, it creates space to explore broader design options, reduces set-up burden, and allows more focus on the judgements that matter. Used properly, this leads to better decisions, more efficient workflows, lower cost, and safer outcomes. However, this ultimately depends on establishing trust in the system from the outset.
So that is what riding in a Waymo brought back to me after WM2026. What became clear is that a shared design challenge is emerging across very different fields. As systems become more capable, the important question shifts away from whether they can do something impressive. It becomes about how they fit around human judgement, how they behave when the world gets messy, and what sort of trust they are really asking people to place in them.
For me, that is a far more useful way to think about AI in engineering. The goal should not be blind faith in capable systems, it should be systems that earn trust in the right way, while leaving responsibility, visibility, and judgement exactly where they should be.
If you have thoughts on this or would like to continue the conversation, feel free to get in touch.
Haleema recently attended the Early Careers Criticality Safety Network (ECSN) site tour of Dounreay in Scotland.
The trip included presentations about Criticality at Dounreay NRS and the history of the Dounreay Site, visits to the Waste Receipt Assay & Characterisation Super Compaction Facility, the iconic globe housing the Dounreay Fast Reactor and the attached Breeder Fuel Removal Facility. The site tour gave a real appreciation for the scale of work involved with nuclear decommissioning, with the visit showing the importance of collaboration across the nuclear sector in addressing challenges of legacy sites.
Haleema’s trip also included a road trip from the north of England to the highlands and back, she made the most of this on her return by starting at the most northern point of the mainland and then travelling down through the dramatic Scottish Highlands visiting Loch Ness (no sightings unfortunately) and Urquhart Castle, then making a stop amongst the beautiful landscapes of Glencoe and Loch Lomond before a stop in vibrant Glasgow.
Meet our new Security Controllers!
Nathan and Sarah attended the DISA training course on the Role of the Facility Security Controller. The course covered security threats, physical security, document handling and control, contracts, IT security, communications security and personnel vetting, giving an overview of government security policy and how this is applied across defence and civil industries. As security controllers, Nathan and Sarah will be supporting security matters across all of Cerberus’ work alongside their usual roles as shielding and criticality consultants.
Particular highlights of the course were an asset handling task (which included inflatable toy “assets” and some improvised double bagging arrangements with a Cerberus Nuclear tote bag and a hastily emptied satchel) and an impromptu tour of medieval flags in nearby Tewkesbury town centre. Tewkesbury was the site of one of the (many) decisive battles of the Wars of the Roses in 1471 and to celebrate this heritage the Tewkesbury Battlefield Society organises summer long displays of coats of arms from the families associated with the battle. This also meant Sarah stopped to take photos approximately every five metres.
Side note: Cerberus Nuclear does not express any allegiance to either side in the Wars of the Roses, the flags are just cool. Staff may wish to brush up on their heraldic imagery should this make an appearance in one of Sarah’s future bizarre quiz rounds…
Cerberus Camping Do 2025
Earlier this month we had our annual Cerberus camping do! The backdrop for this year's festivities was the beautiful Conwy Valley in Wales... and a fairly large amount of rain.
The weather wasn't too bad actually, other than on the Friday evening when we were putting up all of our tents. You can see the before and after of the construction of our mini gazebo below for context. However, we will not be telling you how much time had passed between these two photos so those involved can keep their dignity intact.
We still managed to have a very successful barbecue despite the rain, which was much needed after putting up all of our tents in the less than ideal conditions. The campsite itself was lovely and we'd definitely recommend the Conwy Valley Barn to anyone looking to camp in the area!
On the Saturday, a large contingent of us ventured to the Sblash Aqua park, which was a fantastic time! You can probably see from the pictures and videos below that the adults probably had an even better time than the kids! It was a great experience that we'd definitely recommend for those of all ages. We hope you get at least an idea of how much fun it was from the photos and videos here!
After all of the excitement, we played some games back at the camp site and had some hard earned rest. Here's a photo of Dan's dog Seven, providing a great representation of how we all felt after the water activities, and doing a great impression of Dan who had snuck off for a nap in his tent at the time.
We finished off the day with a lovely meal in Conwy. Some more members of the team, who weren't so keen on camping, joined us for the evening, which was a nice treat. It was a lovely way to end off a very successful camping trip. We look forward to doing this all again next year and sharing our experience of wherever we end up going!
New Starter: Elliot Hughes
We are delighted to welcome Elliot Hughes to the Cerberus Nuclear team!
Elliot has joined us after over four years working in consultancy in the nuclear industry. He began his career working on projects to support EDF UK stations maintain and optimise their systems. Desiring to put his physics degree to use he moved internally with his previous employer where he gained experience in transient analysis, fault studies, and the MONK criticality code – with which he authored a criticality safety assessment for the transport of spent nuclear fuel.
Elliot is looking forward to deepening his criticality experience and developing with Cerberus Nuclear. Welcome to the team Elliot!
How Far Is it from Chicago to Boston?
Well... That Depends How You Measure It
“What on earth is a Smoot?” was the question John and I found ourselves pondering in Boston, standing on Harvard bridge on our way to MIT.
This unit of measure became the perfect metaphor for the distance travelled on our epic journey across America promoting Cyclone Sage - our new AI assistant integrated into Cyclone (Orthrus Software) designed to support nuclear engineering and fusion workflows. It was a trip full of amazing experiences, with some serious science folded in too.
One Smoot, as it turns out, is precisely the length of MIT student Oliver Smoot (5 ft 7 inches), who repeatedly lay down end-to-end across the Harvard Bridge in 1958, creating one of academia’s most eccentric units. The bridge is exactly 364.4 Smoots long, plus or minus one ear.
ANS Conference – Cyclone Sage and Deep-Dish Pizza
Distance Travelled: 17.5 miles / 18,480 Smoots (O’Hare Airport to downtown Chicago)
We began our journey in Chicago at the American Nuclear Society (ANS) conference where we caught up with lots of familiar faces. Here, we introduced our AI assistant, Cyclone Sage, designed to streamline the creation of input decks for MCNP. Sage garnered significant interest and thoughtful discussion, and it was great to see enthusiasm for an AI solution carefully tailored to meet the needs of the nuclear sector.
Aside from the conference, Chicago itself was a brilliant city. We marvelled at the city’s skyline, took in views along the iconic Chicago River, and tackled the legendary deep-dish pizza. Let’s just say we hit a delicious but formidable “cheese wall” at Labriola restaurant, a battle both John and I lost.
Argonne National Lab – High Energy Research and Reactor History
Distance Travelled: 24.5 miles / 25,872 Smoots (Chicago to Argonne)
Upon leaving Chicago, we toured Argonne National Laboratory, an epicentre of nuclear history and cutting-edge research. Here, we glimpsed the remarkable Advanced Photon Source - an immense high-energy X-ray facility where researchers worldwide collaborate on groundbreaking science.
A highlight of the tour was the chance to touch a graphite block from the historic Chicago Pile 1 - the world’s first nuclear reactor. Additionally, we learned a great deal about Argonne’s pioneering work in science, including sodium-cooled reactor technology and exascale computing.
Road Trip Begins – The Open Road
Distance Travelled: 210 miles / 221,760 Smoots (Argonne to Holiday City)
Check out the decals...and always get the damage waiver!
For the next stage of our journey, our trusty GMC Sierra V8 pickup truck carried us eastward on the I90. Despite being absolutely massive, it was surprising easy to drive and powered us comfortably along, towering above almost everything in sight. Arriving late at a rather quirky hotel, we had a brief but memorable pitstop, with our sights set firmly on reaching the stunning spectacle of Niagara Falls the next day.
Cleveland to Niagara – Rock & Roll, Harleys, and brief trip to Canada
Distance Travelled: 359 miles / 379,104 Smoots (Holiday City to Buffalo via Cleveland & Niagara)
Our next stop brought us to Cleveland’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which pays tribute to iconic bands like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and even… Def Leppard. With eardrums still intact, we found a playlist with 100s of hall of fame hits which got us through the many miles of driving. As we continued our journey, we visited a very cool Harley-Davidson dealership, where we had to resist swapping the trusty pickup for two hogs.
Arriving at Niagara Falls was amazing, especially after hearing enthusiastic reviews from people we’d chatted with at ANS. They suggested we cross the Rainbow Bridge into Canada for the best views, and they weren’t wrong. Fortunately, the border officials let us back into the States after buying quite a lot of maple syrup.
Finger Lakes to Springfield – Nature, Baseball and Some American Culture
Distance Travelled: 240 miles / 253,440 Smoots (Buffalo, NY to Springfield, NY, via Montezuma, Skaneateles, and Cooperstown)
Leaving the interstate we drove through the tranquil Finger Lakes region, stopping at Montezuma Wildlife Refuge where a huge eagle statue stands on the roadside. Birdwatching with binoculars from Nuclear Talent Scout exhibiting at ANS was great - thanks for freebie, they were put to good use!
Continuing our drive, we made a memorable stop in the lakeside town of Skaneateles, enjoying much needed coffee and pastries. The locals found it quite amusing when we said “cheers” after receiving our coffees as apparently this doesn’t quite translate in the USA (along with other phrases like: “we need to get a wriggle on” and: “that’ll take donkeys years”). The town was distinctly upmarket with lots of American flags, the same with all the towns we drove through. It was quite a sight.
Cooperstown guided us through the history of baseball, revealing how it united communities across the states. We unfortunately missed attending a ball game in Chicago due to heavy rain, but there’s always next time! Springfield offered us some excellent German cuisine from a local recommendation, reminding us how cultural influences are very broad across America.
The Last Leg–Battleship Cove and on to Boston
Distance Travelled: 154 miles / 162,624 Smoots (Springfield, MA, to Boston via Battleship Cove in Fall River)
Battleship Cove near Boston gave us a look into maritime history, exploring the USS Massachusetts and USS Swordfish, a humbling reminder of the bravery of people during WW2. Experiencing the confined spaces and harsh conditions onboard made us appreciate just how tough life must have been for the people who spent months at sea. We then departed to Boston. After 4 days of travelling, we were both tired but there was no time to waste! We were straight into the SOFE conference the very next day.
Symposium on Fusion Engineering (SOFE)2025
In Boston, our focus turned to fusion energy at the Symposium on Fusion Engineering (SOFE), where we were warmly welcomed by familiar faces. All of the fusion industry leaders were present, UK Industrial Fusion Solutions (UKIFS), Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Tokamak Energy, and Proxima Fusion, just to name a few. A highlight was a bespoke tour given by Rémi Delaporte-Mathurin (MIT) who showed us around the cutting-edge LIBRA tritium breeding experiment. We expressed our thanks with a limited-edition Cerberus Nuclear mug and Yorkshire Tea, essential provisions for any fusion scientist.
Our poster session promoting Cyclone and Cyclone Sage for fusion neutronics analysis was very well attended. The level of engagement was fantastic; both John and I nearly lost our voices from the sheer number of people we spoke to.
Visiting Commonwealth Fusion Systems’s SPARC was genuinely impressive. The rapid progress made has only heightened our excitement for fusion energy’s potential. Lookout from them in 2027 when its due to be turned on.
Thank you CFSProvided by CFS (Commonwealth Fusion Systems)
It's a long way from Chicago to Boston
Of course, we couldn’t leave Boston without visiting where Smoot’s story began, it turns out I’m slightly taller than one Smoot! Most visitors who walk across the Harvard bridge rarely notice the marks that are repainted every year, making it a fascinating hidden piece of MIT knowledge.
So how far is it from Chicago to Boston? Well, it's about 1005 miles, or 1,061,280 smoots +- 1 ear, and probably quite a bit more if you include how many steps we did! With that, our journey across the USA came to a close.
After all this it’s easy to forget that this whole adventure was about Cyclone and Cyclone Sage. So if you’re curious what Orthrus Software are up to, drop them an email (support@orthrussoftware.com) or check out orthrussoftware.com.
Cerberus Attend SRP Annual Conference 2025
Cerberus Nuclear had a fantastic time attending the Society for Radiological Protection (SRP) Annual Conference 2025! The event was hosted over three days at Connexin Live, Hull and was a great success!
This was our first year exhibiting at the event so we brought reinforcements! Andrew, Haleema, Hannah, Sam, and Zac all attended the event so we had plenty of opportunities to attend all of the presentations we wanted to while still having enough people to man our stand.
The exhibition space was a great opportunity to demo Cyclone and CARTA! Providing attendees with a hands on experience of our MCNP visualisation suite and our criticality safety training tools.
There were some great presentations at this years conference, including a short but sweet affiliated organisation presentation from Zac on behalf of the company! It was especially rewarding to hear praise about work Cerberus has done from the perspective of our clients in various presentations across the conference.
The highlight of the SRP Annual Conference 2025 was the annual dinner. It was an amazing opportunity to celebrate all of the work done across the SRP and to build excitement for the 7th European IRPA Congress in Liverpool next year!
In celebration of the 7th European IRPA Congress in Liverpool, the SRP ran a competition for the best affiliate organisation link to Liverpool, which we won!
Our connection to Liverpool is the Jacob Billington Trust (JBT), a charity based in Merseyside for which one of our shielding assessors acts as the treasurer. Last year, two members of our team completed a charity bike ride, where they pedalled over 200 miles from Southport to Hornsea to raise money for the JBT!
A big thank you goes out to the organisers of the SRP Annual Conference 2025! It was an amazing time and we can't wait to attend more SRP events in the future!
Workshop on the Role of Innovation in the Nuclear Back-End
Cerberus Nuclear had the opportunity to attend the Workshop on the Role of Innovation in the Nuclear Back-End, jointly organised by the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and Sellafield Ltd. Thomas Scone and Tom Page sat in on the various talks that ranged from the current accomplishments of robotics within nuclear environments around the world to the emerging potential of artificial intelligence to support various ongoing decommissioning challenges.
With representatives from across Europe and further afield, including China, South Korea, Canada and the US, the workshop showed the benefits of learning from the global nuclear industry. Looking forwards, Cerberus Nuclear is keen to keep an eye on further innovative work in different countries and will continue to seek new opportunities for our own expertise and technologies to find use wherever it may be best used.
