Cerberus Nuclear is delighted to announce that Andrew Weaver has joined the company as our latest starter. He brings with him a wealth of experience working in academic research, gathered during his PhD at the University of Brighton, including a placement at the IGISOL facility at the University of Jyväskylä. During this time, he gained experience in the fields of nuclear mass measurements, ion-trapping and gamma-ray spectroscopy, with the aim of studying low-lying isomeric states in radioactive nuclei. These skills were developed further, along with other technical skills during a post doc at the TITAN facility at TRIUMF, Canada's national particle accelerator centre.
Andrew will be working as a radiation shielding and criticality safety consultant, and we are delighted to welcome him to the team!
Sam and Toby's Charity Ride for the Jacob Billington Trust
Cerberus Nuclear are thrilled to share news that two of the team - Sam and Toby, recently completed an incredible cycling fundraiser in support of the Jacob Billington Trust (JBT).
The JBT is a north west-based charity founded in 2022 for the benefit of young people in the Sefton area. Its objective is to assist young people in accessing music and the creative arts via a number of initiatives, such as: part-funded music lessons, song writing and storytelling sessions, funding for rehearsal spaces and courses, and live events showcasing amazing local talent. One of our employees, John, is also currently a Trustee of the charity.
Over the course of three days, Sam and Toby pedalled over 200 miles from Southport to Hornsea to complete the famous coast-to-coast Trans Pennine Trail. Their journey was filled with incredible views, endless camaraderie, and miraculously, not a single puncture! Daily updates on their progress were shared on their JustGiving page which kept us all on the edge of our seats, rooting for them every mile of the way.
With very tired legs, but high spirits, Sam and Toby raised an astounding £1400, completely surpassing their original target of £1000 which is testament to their dedication and hard work. We are incredibly proud of them both for taking on the challenge in support of a great cause.
At Cerberus Nuclear, we encourage our employees to challenge themselves and to give back to the local community. We are incredibly proud of what Sam and Toby have achieved, and because of this, we have contributed a further £1000 to the JBT.
"Corporate donations play a pivotal role in the nonprofit sector, and we are incredibly grateful to Sam, Toby, and Cerberus Nuclear for their outstanding support. Their combined efforts not only raise crucial funds to support the young people of Sefton, but also spread awareness of our goals as a charity. A huge thank you to you all."
- Sam D'Auvin, Chair of Trustees of JBT
If you’d like to learn more about the JBT and their work, check out the link here.
Cerberus Summer Camping Trip
Cerberus Nuclear had our 2nd Annual camping trip last weekend, this time visiting the lovely town of Llangollen. A group of employees set up camp in the sunshine on Friday alongside their families and dogs. They enjoyed a relaxing evening of pizza, drinks, and various other snacks, as well as a mixture of ball games to keep the kids and a few particularly eager employees entertained.
A few members of the Cerberus team, who were less excited about the concept of sleeping in a field, stayed in a hotel nearby so they could enjoy the weekend festivities in a bit more comfort.
Saturday morning saw the group split up to partake in a variety of activities including white water rafting down the River Dee, a train ride on the Llangollen Heritage Railway, and a local aqueduct cruise. We’ve included lots of pictures of the white water rafting below where everyone involved got soaking wet but had an absolutely great time. Those who took part in the train ride and canal boat trip also had a lovely time and got considerably less wet.
That would all change on Saturday evening though, following a potter around town and an ice cream or two, everyone returned back to camp where the heavens proceeded to open. The rain was then on and off for the rest of the evening with some members of the team choosing to brave a takeaway under the gazebo and others enjoying their tea in a more stable structure… the local pub. We managed to make it through the night though and packed up on Sunday morning, bringing a wonderful weekend to an end.
Cerberus Nuclear recently visited Daresbury Laboratory to explore the current activities on site and potential collaboration in the future.
Being at the forefront of modern science since 1962, Daresbury Laboratory is globally acknowledged for its outstanding scientific achievements across a wide range of disciplines. Cerberus Nuclear was honoured to initially visit the Accelerator Science and Technology Centre (ASTeC) and the Cockcroft Institute, in which several applications of accelerator science are being researched. The team visited a number of laboratories, including the radiofrequency lab, and the advanced 3D printing lab. It was great to see radiation shielding in practice, which the particle accelerator CLARA housed in thick concrete walls and with labyrinth structure designs!
The trip continued with a short walk to the Hartree Centre which focuses on exploring and developing supercomputing, data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. The team were able to view the visualisation suite, including demos of the aerodynamic design of a F1 car, and the VR suite.
Tom Page also gave a presentation on some of the work that Cerberus Nuclear are doing alongside our key consultancy services. The trip was a great opportunity for discussion of potential collaboration opportunities and mechanisms, and the team came away with plenty of new ideas for innovation projects.
Our special thanks extend to Daryl McManus for organising the visit, Anthony Gleeson for a great tour of the ASTeC facilities, and Jonathan Smith for hosting us at the Hartree Centre!
YGN Introduction to Safety Case, Criticality and Shielding Seminar
For the second year running, Cerberus Nuclear have sponsored the Nuclear Institute (NI)Young Generation Network (YGN) “Introduction to Safety Case, Criticality and Shielding” seminar. This is one of a series of “Intro to” events which aims to give YGN members and early career professionals a valuable insight into different specialisms within the nuclear industry.
The day featured an array of talks covering topics on radiation safety assessment, safety case procedure, shielding and criticality, and the Cerberus Nuclear team were involved throughout the day! Tom, a Cerberus Nuclear director, started the day with an introduction to our company history and capability. Daniel gave a lecture on what a criticality is, covering the underlying physics and the factors affecting criticality. Sarah and Zac gave an overview of interesting applications of both criticality and shielding that Cerberus has been involved in. This showcased our virtual reality criticality training tool CARTA, our recent Game Changers project for Sellafield Ltd in collaboration with Jacobs, development work in shielding for fusion reactors and previous shielding verification work.
The day concluded with a Q&A panel, with Sarah and Tom helping the panellists to provide insight and advice on careers in criticality, shielding and safety cases. There was plenty of opportunity for discussions with delegates, who all had very thoughtful and inquisitive questions and we also had some exciting networking conversations with the other speakers, so expect upcoming collaborations and future events!
Thank you to Ellie Ford and the NI YGN for organising a successful event!
The forum brought together industry and academia, exploring current research and advancements. Particular presentation standouts were Ewan Woodbridge (University of Bristol) “The Utilization of Legacy Mine Sites as Training Environments for Radiological Emergency Response Preparedness”, and Dr Mariia Zimina (University of Bristol) “ Neutron irradiated materials studies: challenges and prospects”. It was interesting to reflect on the current work at Cerberus Nuclear and the potential applications of research into industry.
As part of the event Haleema was able to tour the MULTIForm laboratory facilities, which specialise in experimental investigation into the study of multiphase flows in water/acidic systems and high temperature molten salt systems. Lastly Haleema really enjoyed seeing the famous University of Leeds rabbits that were enjoying the summer weather in St. Georges field.
Thank you to the event organisers for putting on an excellent event in the historic University of Leeds campus.
Retain, Sustain, and Thrive: Cerberus Nuclear attend the IDN Conference 2024
Last week, three members of the Cerberus Nuclear team, Katrina Christaki, Hannah Evans, and Dan Rutland, attended the Inclusion and Diversity in Nuclear (IDN) Conference 2024 in Manchester. The theme of this years conference was "Retain, Sustain, and Thrive: Harnessing Inclusion to Power Growth in the UK Nuclear Sector", which focused on how to retain people within the sector by creating environments where everyone feels welcomed and enabled to thrive.
The morning featured a panel from industry leaders on how they implement cultural change and a engaging keynote speech from Prof. Jason Arday on Intersectionality and Belonging in the Workplace. The afternoon saw the team split up to cover a wide range of available workshops covering topics on retaining neurodivergent colleagues, embracing privilege, confronting microaggressions in the workplace, and how to achieve EDI accreditation.
We look forward to sharing and embracing the lessons learned from the event amongst the team, and using that knowledge to help continually improve making the company and nuclear industry a welcoming and supportive place to be. We will be using our learnings from the event to develop an EDI Strategy for the company, which we look forward to sharing in the future!
Cerberus Nuclear joins University of Birmingham Nuclear Masters Steering Committee
A steering committee meeting was held yesterday (19th June), and Katrina Christaki and Daniel Rutland were delighted to take part! The meeting was attended by a number of industry leaders. The purpose of the steering committee was to discuss key issues, including the course content, opportunities for students, and the continual need from across the nuclear industry for skills taught on both courses, such as criticality and shielding.
Cerberus Nuclear has enjoyed a successful relationship with the university, taking on students for summer placements and in graduate roles in previous years. We look forward to becoming more involved with the courses as part of the steering committee.
We would like to thank Paul Norman for inviting us to be involved in the steering committee, and for organising an interesting and thought provoking day!
Cerberus Nuclear attend SRP Conference
Recently, Hannah, Sam and Haleema had the pleasure of attending the 2024 Society for Radiological Protection (SRP) Conference in Eastbourne. It was especially significant as this was Cerberus Nuclear’s first year attending as an SRP Affiliated Organisation.
The conference itself was a hub of knowledge, innovation and learning, with many great presentations, posters and stands. Particular presentation standouts included James Cairns from Aurora Health Physics Services with “Not my CuP of Tea? A radiological insight into the first 48 hours of the Litvinenko Murder Investigation”, and Amjad Khursheed from the ONR with “Importance of Age and Sex in Prospective Analysis of Off-Site Radiological Consequences following an Accident at a UK Nuclear Site”.
Our Shielding Lead Hannah had the important role of judging awards for posters and oral presentations, while Senior Shielding Consultant Sam, delivered a fantastic affiliated organisations presentation about Cerberus Nuclear, and Criticality Consultant Haleema, who is also a member of the SRP Magazine Editorial Team, connected with SRP members and interviewed for an upcoming SRP magazine article.
We look forward to implementing the knowledge gained and building on the connections made. A massive thank you to the SRP organisers for another fantastic SRP conference and we very much look forward to seeing everyone again next year!
Over the course of the week, they developed their knowledge of FLUKA, studying the basic concepts such as geometry and material definitions, as well as sources and scoring to provide a solid understanding of the code. They also studied advanced topics such as neutronics, radioprotection, and activation.
Zac's Example of the Death Star in FLUKA.
Cerberus Nuclear’s access to the FLUKA code has bolstered our radiation shielding and nuclear characterisation resources. It will allow us to consolidate our capability in a broad range of high energy physics disciplines such as accelerator and beam line design, as well as particle physics, aerospace, and medical applications.
Cerberus Nuclear would like to thank CERN for hosting the course and INTA for their role in the local organisation of the course. Sam, Zac, and John also had the opportunity to visit various INTA facilities during the course, which we are excited to tell you about over the next few weeks!
