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.

A bit too much moderator in this CARTA simulation

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.

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.

If you would like to learn more check out Matt Parker’s brilliant Stand-up Maths video, "The bridge which is measured in smoots”.

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.

OSSFE Conference 2025

Last week, our shielding consultant, John Billingsley, had the opportunity to attend the Open Source Software for Fusion Energy (OSSFE) Conference – a first-of-its-kind event dedicated to advancing the development of open-source tools within the fusion energy community. The conference brought together researchers, developers, and enthusiasts from around the world to share exciting open source developments designed to accelerate progress in one of the most complex scientific challenges of all time.

Throughout the day, there was a wide range of engaging sessions and discussions, including technical talks, poster presentations, software demos, Q&A panel sessions, and informal meetups. Researchers presented on a broad range of topics including plasma physics, neutronics, tritium transport, and materials science, and showcased new tools in practical software tutorials.

The event was hosted through Gather in fully customized virtual platform which had been designed to replicate a real-world conference space. This wasn’t something we’d used before and was an interesting new environment to explore. You could navigate the space just like a real conference – dropping into rooms where presentations where happening or using proximity chat to strike up conversations with other attendees as you “walked” past. It brought a surprisingly authentic feel to an online event.

A huge thank you to the organising committee - Rémi Delaporte-Mathurin, James Dark, Jonathan Shimwell, Nick Murphy, Patrick Shriwise, Samuele Meschini, Ethan Peterson, and Julien Hillairet – for putting together such a well-organised and engaging event. We are looking forward to attending again in 2026.

You can check out all of the talks from the conference: https://www.youtube.com/@OSSFE-conf

And explore the posters: https://zenodo.org/communities/ossfe/records?q=&l=list&p=1&s=10

Big Science Business Forum 2024

Cerberus Nuclear had the pleasure of attending the Big Science Business Forum 2024 in Trieste, running from 1st to 4th October. 'Big Science' refers to large scale collaboration on scientific projects funded by governments or international agencies. Sam and Dan had an excellent time at the forum, which was a great opportunity for networking, sharing knowledge, and exploring the latest trends across Big Science.

This year’s event showcased cutting-edge innovations and brought together organisations at the forefront of their industry with major names like CERN, the European Space Agency, and Fusion for Energy in attendance. We were particularly interested in discussions on fields where we can utilise our expertise in radiation shielding and activation analysis.

We were grateful to attend through the SME Track and were proud to present our poster on radiation shielding as part of the poster session. This was well received by attendees, and a big thank you goes to Andrew Weaver for his hard work in creating the poster.

The forum attracted organisations from across the globe, and we were glad to see strong representation from the North West and the Midlands. We had several valuable discussions throughout the forum, as well as during the social dinner in the city, which was a particular highlight of the trip.

The historic city of Trieste provided a wonderful backdrop to this year's event. Sam and Dan made some great connections and we look forward to any future collaborative projects that come from this.

Cerberus Nuclear at SOFE 2023

Cerberus Nuclear recently attended the IEEE Symposium on Fusion Engineering (SOFE) in Oxford. The biennial conference with a focus on fusion excellence brings together scientists, engineers, researchers and industry professionals working in the field of nuclear fusion, providing a platform to exchange knowledge, collaborate on research, and discuss the latest developments in the field of nuclear fusion. The conference also provides opportunities for large fusion projects from both the public and private sector to showcase the progress of their powerplant initiatives.

Cerberus Nuclear were proud to participate in the conference programme, with John Billingsley presenting a poster to showcase the work of his recent development project. The project focussed on the development of optimisation techniques to inform the design of layered neutron shields using material cross-section data. The work generated a lot of interest, with optimisation techniques like this likely to play a key role in the design and delivery of commercial fusion reactors.

The week-long conference concluded with a tour of UKAEA’s Culham campus which is home to several major fusion research facilities and projects including the Joint European Torus (JET), which has been one of the world’s most significant experiments for achieving controlled fusion. The world-recognised campus is at the heart of fusion research in the UK, and is undergoing rapid development to be able to further innovate and solve challenges across the fusion sector and beyond. The tour also saw private fusion companies First Light Fusion and Tokamak Energy showcasing their latest technologies for achieving fusion.

“It was great to attend the SOFE conference in Oxford, not only to showcase the development work of Cerberus Nuclear, but to meet with professionals from across the industry to discuss how they are solving different challenges in fusion. The conference also provided opportunities to meet with former colleagues and friends, and to forge new relationships and opportunities for collaboration across the fusion industry. Thank you to UKAEA for hosting a fantastic conference, and I am looking forward to the next SOFE.”

Thank you to UKAEA for hosting a fantastic conference, and Cerberus Nuclear look forward to collaborating across the fusion industry to contribute to the realisation of clean, limitless energy.

Cerberus Nuclear Sponsor YGN Shielding and Criticality Event

Cerberus Nuclear were recently delighted to be the proud sponsors of the YGN Introduction to Shielding and Criticality Safety Event, organised by the esteemed Nuclear Institute Young Generation Network. The conference brought together a diverse range of delegates from across the nuclear sector to share their insights and expertise on Shielding and Criticality Safety.

The informative seminar was a resounding success, featuring notable speakers from various sectors. In addition, our very own Katrina Christaki, Sam Hilton and John Billingsley had the privilege of delivering captivating talks on the physics of criticality safety, a day in the life of a shielding assessor, and the application of shielding in fusion. As a proud sponsor, we also had the chance to showcase CARTA, our in-house criticality safety training tool, and the many ways it can address the unique challenges facing the nuclear industry.

The event’s comprehensive program was well received by attendees who praised the insightful presentations and dynamic discussions. This conference was especially meaningful as it addressed pressing industry concerns such as skill gaps in critical areas.

Thank you to Frances Yates for organising such an informative event, and we look forward to continued partnerships with the Nuclear Institute YGN and supporting future events that advance knowledge and collaboration in the nuclear sector.

Successful Neutronics Workshop at the University of York

Cerberus Nuclear is thrilled to have been invited to deliver a Neutronics Workshop as part of the Fusion CDT course at the University of York, marking the second consecutive year of our participation. As part of the course, students participate in a week-long fusion technology module to gain a comprehensive understanding of fusion science, covering key topics such as reactor technology, plasma physics, and neutronics modelling.

The week commenced with a workshop on the use of the open-source Monte Carlo transport code OpenMC fusion applications. The workshop was co-delivered by John Billingsley (Cerberus Nuclear) and Dr Jonathan Shimwell (First Light Fusion). Together, they presented the course and provided Master’s and PhD students with valuable insights drawn from their industry experience.

The workshop was a resounding success, offering students hands-on experience with key concepts such as transport theory, material cross-sections, model geometries, source and tally definitions, and running neutronics simulations. John and Jon’s guidance and insights proved invaluable, equipping the students with the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in the field of fusion neutronics.

Cerberus Nuclear is proud to have played a role in the education and development of the next generation of fusion professionals. We early look forward to future opportunities to collaborate with the University of York and the FusionCDT in advancing the field of fusion technology.

“Once again, thanks to the University of York for the invitation to deliver the neutronics workshop for the third year in a row. The workshop was a resounding success, with students gaining valuable insights into the application of neutronics codes in fusion technology.

Thank you to Dr Arkaprava Bokshi for organising a great module.”

– John Billingsley

UKAEA Fusion - STEP Reactor Shielding Design

Cerberus Nuclear and Assystem have been selected to deliver the STEP Reactor In-board Shield Design as part of the STEP Engineering Framework.

Cerberus’s neutronics and radiation transport expertise will play a key role working alongside Assystem’s well-established fusion experience in thermal and mechanical analysis.

The project concerns the extreme environment within the central column of the STEP fusion reactor where temperatures can range from over 100 million of degrees Celsius within the plasma to less than -200 degrees within just a few metres.

Tokamak Reactor MCNP® Geometry, produced using Cyclone™ Viewer by Orthrus Software.

Example Plasma Source & Neutron Interaction Cross Section used in Neutronics Calculations.

Cerberus Nuclear and Assystem are working closely with the STEP research team at UKAEA to develop radiation shielding and cooling strategies within the in-board shield section of the central column. The overall aim is to protect the sensitive toroidal magnets within the central column that work to contain the high temperature plasma. Cerberus role involves optimisation of the shielding to maximise the operational lifetime of these crucial reactor components. Using our knowledge and expertise in neutronics transport as well as interaction cross sections will be simulating a wide variety of arrangements to support continued development.

The delivery of this project is key in advancing the STEP fusion reactor design to the next phase, moving us closer to achieving a commercially viable fusion power plant.

“We are pleased to be working alongside Cerberus Nuclear on this key aspect of STEP. Collectively we will pool the engineering and design expertise, and specialist knowledge needed to ensure success in this project.
“Assystem is a well-established fusion engineering company working on multiple international projects, and we are invested in the UK’s ambition to accelerate progress in the development of this game-changing technology.”
Gary Reed, Transitional Energy Business Manager, Assystem

In its 13 countries of operation, Assystem’s 6,000+ experts are supporting energy transition. To achieve an affordable low-carbon energy supply, Assystem is committed to the development of decarbonised electricity (nuclear, renewables and electricity grids) and clean hydrogen. The Group is also helping drive the use of decarbonised electricity in industrial sectors such as transportation. Assystem is currently ranked as the second nuclear engineering group in the world.

"Cerberus is very proud to be contributing to such a noteworthy project with worldwide importance.
“The skills and experience we have in-house regarding radiation shielding is uniquely suited to support the project. Working closely with our colleagues at Assystem we look forward to the challenge of what will be a highly significant and exciting project.”
Daniel Cork, Director, Cerberus Nuclear

Cerberus Nuclear is an SME dedicated to radiation shielding, criticality safety and nuclear characterisation. Founded in 2016 we have grown rapidly to establish ourselves as an industry leader with a reputation for innovation and promoting good practice.

Our team has supported a wide range of projects within the civil nuclear, fusion, medical, research and defence sectors. Our mission is to “to provide high quality technical solutions with an emphasis on creativity and innovation. We achieve this by being an exemplary employer of talented individuals”

Featured image of STEP courtesy of UKAEA. Example tokamak reactor was based upon ITER Project Paper (2020) and Paramak ITER 2020 reactor model.

OpenMC Fusion Technology Course

Cerberus Nuclear recently provided OpenMC support to the Fusion CDT course at the University of York. As part of the course the students attend a week-long fusion technology module to learn about all aspects fusion including reactor technology, plasma physics and neutronics modelling. The week concluded with a workshop on the open-source neutronics transport code OpenMC.

The OpenMC workshop was run by John Billingsley (Cerberus Nuclear) and Jon Shimwell (Firstlight Fusion). Together they presented a course on OpenMC teaching fusion neutronic transport analysis as well as providing the students with valuable insights from their industry experience.

The students covered the use of Paramak for fusion reactor parametric geometry creation.

The workshop was aimed at beginners covering a wide range of topics including transport theory, running neutronic simulations, understanding material cross-sections, creating simulation geometries, scoring tallies, source definitions plus many more.

The course was very well attended with students from master's to PhD level looking to gain industry experience and knowledge related to the exciting and rapidly developing field of nuclear fusion.

"After delivering the workshop remotely in 2021, it was great to be back at University of York. The workshop was a great success, with students developing from having little or no neutronics knowledge at all, to having a fundamental understanding of neutronics and its application, and being able to perform a variety of studies using OpenMC.
Many thanks to Prof. Bruce Lipschultz for inviting us back."
John Billingsley, Cerberus Nuclear

To find out more check out the links to OpenMC and University of York Fusion CDT.