We recently presented two papers at the American Nuclear Society Annual Meeting in Anaheim, California. The papers were presented within the Nuclear Criticality Safety Division (NCSD) Topical Meeting and were titled:

• CARTA – Criticality Safety Virtual Reality Training Aid, Recent Developments.
• Cyclone – Monte Carlo Data Processing and Visualization.

Katrina presented the CARTA paper and won the best paper award within the ‘Knowledge Transfer – Education, Professional Development, and Training’ track. The trophy (a prestigious NCSD thermos mug!) was presented at the NCSD awards dinner. The UK was well represented at the conference, with Katrina picking up her award alongside Amy van der Vyver from Sellafield Limited who presented a paper on the ‘UK Working Party on Criticality Webinar Series to Support Continuing Professional Development’. Liam Payne of Nuclear Waste Services (NWS) presented a UK perspective on Post-Closure Criticality Safety, and Alfie O’Neil from NNL presented a paper on Benchmark Experiments.

Cyclone and CARTA were really well received. Cyclone visualisation of MCNP models featured in a presentation by colleagues at the University of New Mexico. Stewart and Katrina were on hand with VR headsets to demonstrate CARTA, giving attendees the chance to (safely) cause a criticality in a glovebox.

Thanks to the ANS and, in particular, our colleagues within the NCSD who made us feel very welcome at the conference.