News from 2005

News Items

Visit by Dr Shang Zhaorong of the Nuclear Safety Centre, China

15 Dec 2005

Dr Shang Zhaorong of the Nuclear Safety Centre in China recently spent two weeks at Quintessa's Henley-on-Thames office under the auspices of the IAEA and the British Council.

Alan Paulley joins the University of Edinburgh's Civil and Environmental Engineering Industrial Advisory Board

25 Nov 2005

Alan Paulley has accepted an invitation from the University of Edinburgh to join the Civil and Environmental Engineering Industrial Advisory Board.

Facilitation support for CoRWM

23 Nov 2005

Quintessa is currently providing assistance to Catalyze Limited in the provision of facilitation support to the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM).

Dounreay Shaft Isolation Project: Groundwater Modelling

17 Nov 2005

Quintessa and URS Corporation have been awarded a contract to develop groundwater flow models in the vicinity of the D1225 Shaft at Dounreay, a historic facility for Intermediate Level radioactive Waste (ILW).

TESLA now available for download

4 Nov 2005

TESLA, Quintessa's software tool designed to aid the process of complex decision making, is available to download as a restricted trial version from the new-look TESLA website.

Independent Review of Tasks 6A, 6B and 6B2 of the Äspö Task Force on Modelling of Groundwater Flow and Transport of Solutes

4 Nov 2005

An independent review is being carried out of the specifications, execution and results of Task 6 of the Äspö Task Force on Modelling of Groundwater Flow and Transport of Solutes, which is seeking to provide a bridge between site characterization and performance assessment approaches to solute tran…

Preliminary Post-Closure Safety Case for the Dounreay Shaft

18 Oct 2005

At the recent ICEM05 conference, James Penfold presented a paper on the preliminary post-closure safety case for the Dounreay shaft.

Free Downloadable Version Available for AMBER

12 Oct 2005

A freely downloadable demonstration version has been developed for the AMBER compartment modelling software that Quintessa supports.

Waste Package Scenario Modelling

11 Oct 2005

At the recent 29th International Symposium on the Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management in Belgium (MRS 2005), Sarah Watson presented an overview of work for UK Nirex on waste package scenario modelling.

Radioactive Waste Management: A Participatory Approach to Increase the Influence of Local Actors on the National Decision-Making Process

29 Sep 2005

At the recent ICEM05 conference, Mike Egan presented a paper elaborating upon a participatory methodology to pursue the objective of studying and defining mechanisms for local actors to 'stretch' national players in decision making for radioactive waste management.

House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology: Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Technology

26 Sep 2005

The House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology has invited evidence on: The viability of CCS as a carbon abatement technology The UK Government's role in funding CCS R&D and providing incentives for technology transfer and industrial R&D

Warrington Office Opened

12 Sep 2005

Quintessa is pleased to announce the opening of a new office in Warrington initially staffed by Mike Egan, Alan Paulley and Alex Bond.

Environmental issues and the geological storage of CO₂

20 Jul 2005

The British Geological Survey and Quintessa have recently published a position paper highlighting environmental issues associated with the geological storage of CO2.

Physical Integrity of AGR Graphite Cores

6 Jul 2005

Demonstrating the maintenance of the physical integrity of graphite cores in Advanced Gas Cooled Reactors (AGRs) is a critical part of the safety case for their operation.

Response to 2nd Consultation Document from CORWM: How Should the UK Manage Radioactive Waste?

27 Jun 2005

The Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CORWM) has been appointed by the UK Government and the devolved administrations for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to review the potential options for managing UK radioactive wastes and recommend an option, or combination of options, that will pr…

PRISM foodchain modelling presented at SRP symposium

16 Jun 2005

The UK Society for Radiological Protection (SRP) recently held its Seventh International Symposium in Cardiff, focusing on 'Change and Continuity in Radiation Protection' (12th to 17th June, 2005).

Post-Closure Safety Case for the Dounreay Shaft

3 May 2005

The ILW Shaft at Dounreay contains around 850 m3 of intermediate level radioactive waste, consigned in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Radioactively Contaminated Land - Development of 'RCLEA' Model

20 Mar 2005

The UK Government's Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is developing a regime for the regulation of radioactively contaminated land in the UK that is expected to come into force in the next year or so.

Building Confidence in Geological Models

2 Feb 2005

A paper by Andrew Bowden, a Quintessa Associate Consultant, describing an evidence-based uncertainty analysis framework for building confidence in geological models has been published in a special publication of the Geological Society of London entitled Geological Prior Information: Informing Scien…

Sequestration of CO₂ in Geothermal Areas

7 Jan 2005

Quintessa is providing numerical modelling support to a project investigating the feasibility of sequestering atmospheric CO2 in geothermal areas. This sequestration strategy is one possible means for mitigating the effects of climate change caused by anthropogenic CO2 emissions.