Criticality Safety

We have the largest independent criticality safety team in the UK.

What is Criticality Safety?

Criticality safety is defined as the protection against the consequences of an inadvertent nuclear chain reaction. An inadvertent nuclear chain reaction (or ‘criticality accident’) results in a sudden release of radiation. It does not result in an explosion and rarely is any significant physical damage to equipment or machinery caused. It can, however, be fatal to anyone in the vicinity.

A criticality accident can be prevented by designing processes, which involve fissile material, such that they can never assemble into a configuration that can sustain a nuclear chain reaction. This is achieved by controlling one or more of the factors such as mass, moderation, enrichment, separation, etc. Consideration must be given to the various fault scenarios that can impact a facility to ensure safety at all times.

Our Capability

Cerberus Nuclear has the largest independent criticality safety team in the UK and has significant experience in supporting key clients across the nuclear industry. We are also members of the UK Working Party on Criticality (WPC), which is a non-executive national committee focusing on criticality safety issues. We are active in this forum, for example, supporting the production of industry good practice guides.

We provide support across the full nuclear fuel cycle and offer a complete range of criticality safety services. Our consultants can work independently within our offices or remotely on client sites.

• Full Nuclear Fuel Cycle (New Build to Decommissioning)

• Experts in Criticality Calculations (MCNP, KENO & MONK)

• Validation and Verification of Computer Codes

• Criticality Incident Detection (CID) Omission Cases

• Operator and Criticality Specialist Training

• Independent Peer Review

CARTA™ –
Criticality Safety Training Aid

Cerberus Nuclear have developed CARTA™, which is an immersive environment to provide real-time feedback for realistic criticality safety training.

The field of criticality safety is complex with multiple competing parameters (fissile mass, moderation, reflection, separation, etc.) that can result in counter-intuitive interactions.

Our platform uses a novel machine learning approach to allow operators and key stakeholders to vary safety parameters, in real-time, allowing for intuitive understanding of potential risks. The real-time data presented is highly accurate and validated against Monte Carlo simulations so that key decisions on safety can be made with confidence.

CARTA™ has been presented internationally and is a highly adaptable system that can be tailored to create training scenarios bespoke to particular site requirements. We also have two ready-made simulations that are available now.

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other services

RADIATION
SHIELDING

We are experienced in communicating high quality, complex data produced from assessments to all stakeholders. This knowledge allows a project to make intuitive and informed decisions, which provides greater confidence and reduces overall project risk during the design process.

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NUCLEAR
CHARACTERISATION

We are at the forefront of the development and deployment of innovative and cost effective non-destructive techniques which can be used for physical and radiometric measurement in highly challenging environments. Our techniques can be applied across a range of sectors.

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SOFTWARE
DEVELOPMENT

Our team has extensive experience in development of software projects. We use the Agile methodology for rapid release and short development cycles
We are experts in data science specifically for nuclear engineering applications and the analysis of large data sets.

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Criticality Safety

We have the largest independent criticality safety team in the UK.

What is Criticality Safety?

Our Capability

CARTA™ –
Criticality Safety Training Aid

other services

RADIATION
SHIELDING

NUCLEAR
CHARACTERISATION

SOFTWARE
DEVELOPMENT