Three of the Cerberus Nuclear team have an MSc in Nuclear Science and Technology from NTEC; the course offers an ideal introduction to the nuclear industry and so it is great to be able to keep ties with the University.
NTEC (back in 2006!)
The project itself is intended to support an expanded number of scenarios for our criticality training aid (CARTA). Work is being conducted 100% remotely due to the current COVID related working arrangements, which has been challenging, but the project is off to a promising start.
CARTA
Return to the Office
We have rearranged our office to be in-line with social distancing guidelines.
With most of the team still working from home we decided to re-purpose the space into a fully featured virtual reality suite. This enables us to take a big leap forward in our capability and we should have some exciting news on this front in the coming weeks!
The picture shows Sam getting to grips with an analogue of a JCS gamma dose rate monitor.
Cerberus Nuclear hosted the 46th Shielding Forum meeting online this week. An online format was chosen due to the recent travel and meeting restrictions due to the COVID19 outbreak.
Attendees from EDF Energy, Edvance, BAES, Cavendish Nuclear, Orano Projects, Kinectrics, UKAEA, Rolls Royce, Jacobs, SRP and ONR were there and the meeting spanned several different countries including United States, Canada and France.
Daniel Cork (TSF Chair)
A big thank you to all attendees of TSF46, online engagement from members far exceeded expectations and we would just like to thank everyone for their contributions during the meeting."
One of the key topic discussed was the proposed 2021 Shielding Awareness Course in which Cerberus Nuclear will be playing a key role. The course will be a collaboration between TSF and the Society of Radiological Protection (SRP).
The next TSF members meeting is currently due to be held in November 2020 at the ANSWERS Seminar. Further details will be found closer to the event at https://www.shieldingforum.com/
Cyber Essentials Plus Certification
As part of our ongoing commitment to cyber security, Cerberus Nuclear are pleased to announce that following a successful audit we have been awarded the Cyber Essentials Plus certification.
Cyber Essentials is a Government-backed and industry-supported scheme that helps businesses protect themselves against the growing threat of cyber attacks and provides a clear statement of the basic controls organisations should have in place to protect them.
The Cyber Essentials Plus certification involves a more rigorous test of a companies IT systems where cyber security experts carry out vulnerability and penetration tests to make sure an organisation is protected.
Our Cyber Essentials Plus certification marks another step of continuous improvement for the company and provides additional confidence to all our clients regarding our approach to data security.
Surgical Mask Ear Saver - 3D Printing
Our 3D printer has been put to good use over the past week in the creation of ear savers for surgical masks worn by NHS staff at St Mary's Children's Hospital in Manchester.
An ear saver is worn at the back of the head and provides pressure relief for the surgical mask wearers' ears; elastic can often rub if worn for long periods causing discomfort and requiring constant adjustment. The use of the ear saver also aims to improve mask fitting.
We created a custom lightweight ergonomic design that can be easily 3D printed in large numbers, and so far we have supplied over 150.
We hope our very small contribution helps and we would like to share our appreciation for everyone working for the NHS at this challenging time.
If you have 3D printing capacity and would like to use our latest design then please get in touch.
New Starter - Toby Tyas
Toby is a new addition to Cerberus Nuclear but he has worked with us on many projects over the last few years in various roles. He is a valuable addition to Cerberus Nuclear's criticality safety team and brings with him a great deal of experience, particularly in decommissioning criticality safety, having delivered assessments for a number of high-profile decommissioning projects in the UK.
He is proficient in the use of MCNP and MONK for criticality safety and is a knowledgeable user of Visual Basic. Toby is also a skilled trainer and mentor, drawing on his experience from a previous career as a schoolteacher.
Object Recognition - Computer Vision
We have developed a custom computer vision object identification algorithm. As a demonstration, we trained a neural network to identify cars and lorries on a motorway using R-CNN object detection.
The algorithm identifies a number of objects, object type (car/lorry etc.), object colour, object speed and confidence in match. In addition, a report is generated that summarises the information gathered over time.
Cerberus Nuclear has access to the necessary computing power for near real-time, high-accuracy identification. The example was produced to demonstrate validity for stopped car identification as well as traffic monitoring.
In addition to this example, computer vision has a number of nuclear applications that we will be looking to build upon in the coming weeks.
If you would like to know more or if you have a specific challenge, which you think computer vision may solve, don't hesitate to get in touch.
COVID-19 update
These past few weeks have been a strange time for all of us, we are adjusting to a new reality and in accordance with the government advice on social distancing, since last week we have all been working at home. We are pleased to report that everyone is well and our company and capabilities remain fully functioning, being unaffected by the physical separation.
During these uncertain times our priorities are clear:
maintaining the health and safety of our team and their families;
providing a smooth, reliable service for our clients.
We are thankfully currently on track with both of these. Our IT networks, communications infrastructure, computing capability and company culture was always set up to allow for flexible and remote working as the norm. If there are any small businesses that would like some help and advice with this, then please get in touch and we’d be more than happy to assist.
Hope you all stay safe out there! Best wishes from the Cerberus Nuclear team.
(Pete’s plant has been rescued from the office today)
New Starter - Peter Evans
Peter started with us back in November 2019 as a Principal Shielding Assessor. He brings with him a wealth of Sellafield Limited experience having worked there for the last 11 years, leading delivery of the shielding support for a number of key projects. He has hit the ground running at Cerberus, delivering assessments for a number of clients and has made valuable contributions to some of our in-house software development projects.
The Generator - Point Cloud
For many years companies and networking groups have used this facility for seminars and lectures to facilitate networking, knowledge sharing and collaboration opportunities.
Cerberus Nuclear were delighted to offer our services to Birchwood Park, which then allows them to showcase this valued facility in a unique manner.
The original point cloud consisted of over 100 million points of data created from multiple 3D scans. Our scans produced a high-density point cloud with accuracy of 1mm.
The interactive model shown above has been downscaled to ~2 million points to cater for optimised dynamic viewing.
A big thank you goes to Birchwood Park for allowing us to access The Generator, for more information check out:
