The end of September was dissertation deadline time for our three NTEC summer students. This was our busiest year to date, welcoming three students from the University of Manchester.
NTEC (Nuclear Technology Education Consortium) offer a postgraduate-level masters degree in Nuclear Science and Technology, which is delivered in both directly taught and distance learning formats. Students produce a dissertation over the summer, often involving support of industry partners like Cerberus Nuclear.
This year, students worked on projects involving modelling of arrays in criticality safety, analytical methods for radiation shielding and machine learning optimisation.
All of our students successfully completed their projects and we wait in anticipation for their results!
As part of the latest update to the Sellafield opportunities guidance, Cerberus Nuclear has been featured within its SME action plan. The SME action plan reaffirms Sellafield's commitment to increase opportunities for SMEs within the supply chain recognising the adaptability, innovation and value that SMEs bring to help Sellafield deliver its mission.
As a public contracting authority Sellafield Ltd are committed to delivering activities which increase the opportunities for SMEs (small to medium enterprises) to do business with the supply chain. Sellafield have a target to spend 32 - 33% of supply chain spend with SMEs in 2021/22.
To learn more about ANDI and our latest developments combining computer vision with 360 video go to ANDI360.
Nuclear Institute - Dynamic Dose Rates
As part of Cerberus Nuclear’s Radiation Protection Training Aid (RAPTA) continued development work has been performed regarding the visualisation of dynamic radiation systems.
A dynamic radiation system is where radiation sources can move or change properties in 3D space either during a task or a facility operation. Cerberus Nuclear have developed in-house software to process these complex systems and simulate dynamic radiation scenarios within reasonable timescales.
Sam Hilton will be presenting at the North West Nuclear Institute talking about the advantages of accurately modelling dynamic radiation systems and how this can improve the accuracy of dose uptake assessments. The event is on 16th June, is free to attend, registration can be found at:
As part of our ongoing commitment to cyber security, Cerberus Nuclear are pleased to announce the renewal of our 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 provides additional confidence to all our clients regarding our approach to data security.
ANDI: 360 Tracking
This is our latest post regarding our software ANDI (Automated Nuclear Damage Inspection) and incorporating identification capability with 360 video data.
The 360 camera sector has advanced significantly over the past few years, camera resolution and image quality has improved greatly as well as advancements in software processing to provide multiple different ways of viewing the captured images and video. Cerberus Nuclear has been keeping up to date with latest developments with an aim of using this technology in the nuclear sector.
Cerberus recently developed ANDI (Automated Nuclear Damage Inspection) for Sellafield Ltd. The software automatically identifies key areas of damage from inspection videos and is currently being used by Sellafield to accelerate damage inspection tasks. The software is built into a user-friendly interface and supports the creation of reports and logging of key identified features.
Building upon our knowledge we are currently testing the use of 360 camera and video data with our custom computer vision algorithms, including ANDI. Some key advantages of using 360 data for automated damage inspection is that the orientation of the inspection camera is no longer a factor as images capture the full 360 degrees.
Similar technology is currently being used in autonomous vehicles for object identification and distance determination.
Footage obtained from a Cerberus Nuclear test car.
Our preliminary testing has proved to be very successful and we have overcome some of the challenges inherent in working directly with 360 data sets. The prototype software we have created demonstrates the capability of combining both 360 image technology with our bespoke computer vision algorithms.
Our goal is to continue the development of ANDI so this highly useful and innovative technology can be put to good use solving a wide range of challenges in the nuclear sector and beyond.
Look out for future updates, if you would like to learn more don't hesitate to get in touch at nuclear@cerberusnuclear.com.
STEM Ambassadors is a government-run scheme that brings together a range of people from a range of disciplines and backgrounds, including engineers, designers, architects, scientists and technicians. They help bring a new and inspiring perspective to STEM lessons and career opportunities.
STEM Ambassadors is a government-run scheme that brings together a range of people from a range of disciplines and backgrounds, including engineers, designers, architects, scientists and technicians. They help bring a new and inspiring perspective to STEM lessons and career opportunities.
It is a flexible programme where teachers can get in touch with STEM ambassadors for their own individual needs.
I signed up to become a STEM ambassador with support from Cerberus with the goal to inspire more young people from all backgrounds to engage with STEM subjects.
Becoming a STEM ambassador during the COVID-19 pandemic has been a unique challenge as going into schools physically has not been an option. Everything has been done virtually which has given me the opportunity to engage with schools further afield, no longer having the travel considerations.
Instead of going to schools, I have had many meaningful conversations with teachers about my career path and how to inspire children to engage with their classes. I have been discussing what I do day-to-day so they can feed it back to their students and put some of the lessons into perspective. As a student at secondary school, I learnt about nuclear power plants but had no idea of the associated jobs and whether I would be interested in doing the activities day-to-day. In such an uncertain time, having context surrounding students’ virtual lessons has been key to their engagement.
As things begin to open up again, I look forward to doing more in-person volunteering and running my own events. I would especially like to help run an after-school science club with exciting experiments that there is no time for within the curriculum and attend in-person career fairs.
"We're delighted that Katrina has identified such a worthwhile role, it sits really well alongside our structured criticality training programme. She makes a great role model for students and the company fully supports her continued participation."
Stewart Hay, Director
Sellafield LINC: Image Processing for Assessing Package Integrity
The Challenge
LINC with Sellafield Ltd is a scheme that encourages SMEs at local and national level to collaborate and deliver innovative solutions to support the mission at Sellafield. LINC challenge 42 was titled ‘Image Processing for Assessing Package Integrity using Machine Learning’ and set the challenge as follows:
“The long-term storage of nuclear waste is at the heart of the nuclear industry in the UK. As a requirement this material must be examined on a regular basis, which generates a vast amount of data to be reviewed. Presently this is done manually and takes a lot of time and is vulnerable to human error."
Cerberus Nuclear’s Data Science team proposed the development of software containing a trained machine learning computer vision model that would be capable of automatically recognising issues that could affect integrity of the package. Our team use the ‘Agile’ design methodology, which incorporates software testing in short, focused development cycles; ideal for the project.
We were delighted when Sellafield Ltd chose our solution ahead of some tough competition.
ANDI: Automated Nuclear Damage Inspection
ANDI is a high-quality user-friendly software program that utilises computer vision machine learning for automated identification of damage from externally supplied video.
The software allows detailed examination of product can inspection videos, automatically identifying damage such as scratches, dents and corrosion. The neural network within ANDI uses a cutting-edge R-CNN approach for image analysis and was trained using previous examples of damage.
Damage identified is highlighted within an embedded video player, which allows users to quickly skip to areas of interest and examine results frame by frame to inspect the exact moment(s) that damage has been detected. The confidence level of identified damage can be customised by the user with damage highlights switched on or off to assist with detailed inspection.
An integrated inspection report system was incorporated into the software to allow users to make notes and log frames for easy follow up review. The software also allows the processing of multiple batches of inspection videos with minimal user interaction. This allows the review of multiple processed results within a single session.
The algorithm for the Sellafield challenge uses an extension of the R-CNN called the Mask R-CNN. The R-CNN algorithm (Region based Convolutional Neural Network) can detect and classify objects within images, it focuses on variations of colour, texture and scale within an image to form a region.
“I really like the look and feel of the software and I’m impressed how well the neural network is identifying the key elements of damage, it’s very good!”
“We are delighted that Cerberus Nuclear helped make a difference at Sellafield Ltd. The Data Science team have delivered a great solution, bringing modern techniques to the nuclear industry.”
Daniel Cork, Director, Cerberus Nuclear
Sellafield Ltd are currently using ANDI to enhance their damage inspection workflow which, prior to using the software, had taken many man-hours to identify, categorise and log.
Cerberus Nuclear are proud to announce ANDI has recently been a key feature for inTechBrew. inTechBrew promotes the latest high Technology Readiness Level (TRL) nuclear industry innovations across UK and Europe.
Machine Learning Computer Vision
Previously, the team developed a custom computer vision object identification algorithm to identify cars and lorries on a motorway using R-CNN object detection method.
The algorithm identified the number of objects, object type (car, lorry, etc.), object colour, object speed and confidence in match. In addition, a report was generated that summarised the information gathered over time. The development was to demonstrate validity of use for stopped car identification as well as traffic monitoring purposes.
The Sellafield Ltd LINC challenge aligned well with the previous development work already performed and paved the way for the creation of ANDI. Additional technical challenges such as variable lighting, frame blur and reflections had to be overcome as well as creating a custom user-friendly interface that met with Sellafield Ltd requirements. The processing time for the computer vision algorithm was also enhanced.
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.
University of Liverpool – NTEC Shielding Design Process Lecture
The UK Shielding Forum (TSF) has provided support for the Radiation Shielding Module of the University of Liverpool’s NTEC course for many years, providing an industry focused knowledge input to the radiation shielding module.
Several TSF member organisations provide lectures on a wide range of subjects, from Monte Carlo and deterministic codes to practical radiation shielding applications.
Cerberus Nuclear is key member of TSF and provides a student lecture on the Shielding Design Process. Our talk focuses on how this high-level process is used in industry to supporting facility design.
This year, due to the restrictions of Covid-19, our own Geoff Hall pre-recorded the lecture, which was shown to students and very well received. This was then followed up the next day by a live Q&A session where students were tasked to think about the practicalities of defining a shielding design basis and performing shielding calculations based on that design basis for a realistic scenario. They were then given the chance to ask general questions about the subjects covered in the lecture.
The live session was well attended by students, who engaged with the exercise and asked a variety of pertinent questions both about the exercise and the lecture itself. Indeed, the session proved so popular that it ran an additional 30 minutes until the start of the next session!
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.
