Cerberus Nuclear has recently provided support to the University of Birmingham’s nuclear post-graduate masters courses. Geoff Hall and Katrina Christaki presented a lecture to students of the PTNR (Physics and Technology of Nuclear Reactors) and NDWM (Nuclear Decommissioning and Waste Management) courses as part of an ongoing industry lecture series.
They gave an introduction to radiation shielding and criticality safety assessment in industry which was supported by case studies on the innovative projects that have been carried out by the Cerberus team over the past 12 months.
In particular, dynamic source movement assessment techniques were described and the benefits for use in radiation transport assessment were of focus, as well as a worked example of a dynamic waste package loading and transfer process within a facility with changing dose rate contours displayed live as package movements take place.
Worked Example of Dynamic Box Loading and Transfer
Cerberus's criticality training aid, CARTA, was also presented. CARTA is a brand new innovative tool that uses machine learning to calculate k-eff in real time for the purposes of operator training. CARTA is currently in development supported by NNL, AWE and Sellafield Ltd as part of the Alpha Resilience Capability. An early desktop version of CARTA was demonstrated to students providing an insight into the fundamental principles of criticality safety.
CARTA: Glovebox in VR, Tōkai-mura criticality simulation
The lecture was well received by the students and provided an excellent demonstration of the unique and innovative work that individuals joining the team can look forward to getting involved with.
Cerberus supports summer placements from the NTEC (Nuclear Technology Education Consortium) postgraduate-level masters degree course, and we look forward to doing the same for the University of Birmingham later this year.
UK Working Party on Criticality, November 2021
Cerberus Nuclear attended the second Working Party on Criticality (WPC) meeting of the year, taking place as a web-conference.
Stewart Hay attended as our representative with graduate, Katrina Christaki, attending as an observer for the first time. As the meeting was held online, it was a good opportunity for Katrina to progress her professional development gaining insight to the range of issues considered by the WPC and its sub-groups as well as how they interact with licenced sites.
The WNE is the world's largest exhibition dedicated to nuclear energy, and the first platform dedicated to the global civil nuclear community. The three day event combines business meetings, guided tours, workshops, debates and panel discussions. This year's event theme is "the nuclear industry, a key partner for a low carbon society in a responsible future".
Our booth is in the Start Up Planet, a dedicated exhibition space for about 20 new companies in the nuclear field which has been specially designed to optimise product demonstrations, pitches, networking and new encounters. In addition to our exhibition booth, we have also been entered into the WNE Innovation Awards for the Radiation Protection Training Aid (RAPTA).
This year, the WNE Awards Ceremony will take place at 5pm on 30th November. There will be two prizes for each of the four innovation categories - Nuclear Safety, Operational Excellence, Products & Services, and Skills & Knowledge Management.
Cerberus Receives ARC Funding to Develop Criticality Safety VR Training Software
Cerberus Nuclear is a hub for innovation in criticality safety and radiation shielding and we are pleased to announce that we have made a successful application for funding from the UK’s Alpha Resilience and Capability (ARC) programme. ARC was created by BEIS (Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy) to ensure that the UK retains its world-leading alpha capabilities: from operations and maintenance, to high-end R&D and design. This cross-industry consortium includes the National Nuclear Laboratory, Sellafield Limited, AWE and ONR.
Over the last two years Cerberus Nuclear has developed CARTA, a concept for criticality safety VR (Virtual Reality) training software, which we successfully presented at ICNC2019. Uniquely, CARTA uses a machine learning algorithm to predict k-effective 'on the fly' for a given system, such as an alpha facility glovebox. When coupled to a VR headset, CARTA gives users an immersive experience of the facility environment and the effect of their actions on the system’s reactivity.
The ARC funding will support the next phase of development, to refine the concept into a software package for members of the ARC consortium to use. CARTA will deliver tangible benefits directly to operators on plant, criticality safety specialists and other stakeholders in criticality safety. The software package will use a variety of scenarios in desktop and VR environments, to provide intuitive user interfaces. The underpinning data will be based on accurate modelling of the neutron physics, providing a realistic environment for trainees to improve their understanding of the complexities associated with criticality safety.
The specifics of the training scenarios will be guided by a Technical Steering Committee, comprising stakeholders from the various ARC member organisations. This will ensure that the training scenarios are relevant and can be effectively integrated into their existing training programmes.
We are now actively seeking organisations that would benefit from bespoke criticality safety training scenarios. If you would like to discuss your idea, please get in touch using nuclear@cerberusnuclear.com.
Norwegian Regulatory Support
Cerberus Nuclear are part of a consortium that has been selected by the Norwegian Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (DSA) to support its activities related to nuclear safety and security over the next two to four years.
The consortium was awarded the contract by DSA in the face of stiff international competition. The Consortium is led by ARC supported by Cerberus Nuclear, Ubique Risk Management, NSG Environmental, Matom and Quintessa.
"We are delighted to have Cerberus on board again. We have developed an excellent working relationship with them since they were established and they have consistently provided excellent criticality and shielding services to ARC across many projects, including on a separate contract with DSA"
Jon Baggs, ARC's Nuclear Business Manager
The appointment provides further recognition of our Criticality Safety expertise, and builds on our regulatory support activities both in the UK and further afield.
WPC Meeting - November 2020
Cerberus Nuclear attended the second Working Party on Criticality (WPC) meeting of the year, and the second to take place as a web-conference.
This was the first meeting since Toby Tyas was confirmed as our new representative, alongside Stewart Hay. We presented Eddy, our new open source HTML output generator for MCNP and SCALE. Toby discussed our recent funding application to the Alpha Resilience Capability (ARC) Programme, in support of the development of CARTA, and continued his contribution to the ‘Handbooks’ sub-group.
We’re looking forward to a point in time when the meetings can take place in person again, but thank you to Springfields Fuels Limited (Westinghouse Electric Company) for hosting the virtual event.
Eddy - MCNP & SCALE Html Generator
Cerberus Nuclear has created Eddy, an open-source Html output generator for MCNP and SCALE. The function of Eddy is to parse MCNP and SCALE output files into an easy-to-read and user-friendly format. Eddy has been written to work for both radiation transport and criticality calculations.
Eddy collates key information from an output file so that it can be quickly reviewed. Normalisation factors can also be specified to simplify interpretation of tally outputs.
Eddy Html outputs include:
Normalised Tally Results with Error
Highlighted Statistical Checks
K-effective and Error
Comments and Warnings
Cell Mass and Volumes
Particle Populations
Full MCNP Input
Eddy is simple to use from the command line or via its built-in interface. Hyperlinks within the Html enable the user to navigate to the required part of the output with ease.
The Html output from Eddy assists in the preparation of technical reports supports QA processes and improves workflow efficiency. The contained nature of the Html output and its small file size also facilitates the sharing of calculation outputs for independent review purposes.
If you would like to provide any feedback or would like to request additional features please get in touch by emailing nuclear@cerberusnuclear.com
RWM Criticality Safety Framework
We are really pleased to announce that Cerberus Nuclear and Galson Sciences Limited have teamed up to support Radioactive Waste Management (RWM) on their Criticality Safety Framework. We believe our combined criticality teams offer RWM a really strong capability, with a blend of operational criticality safety experience and unique repository operational expertise. We are looking forward to working on a wide range of tasks during this exciting time for GDF development in the UK.
