News from 2010

News Items

Visit to Little Heath School Careers Fair

13 Oct 2010

In response to a request from The Institute of Mathematics and Its Applications, Quintessa sent a representative to Little Heath School in Tilehurst, Reading for a careers day aimed at students in year 9.

Innovation Rewarded

4 Oct 2010

Quintessa has long experience of applying innovative techniques to address difficult real-world problems. Recent projects have demonstrated the power of Statistical Modelling methods employing both ‘frequentist’ and Bayesian approaches to tackle the related issues of Uncertainty and Variability tha…

Understanding Controls on the Performance of Engineered Barrier Systems in Repositories for High-level Radioactive Waste and Spent Fuel

30 Sep 2010

The implications for waste form design, waste packaging and repository design, were examined by looking at our current understanding of processes that could influence the long-term performance of a repository.

Acceptable Release Rates to the Biosphere for the Disposal of Graphite

6 Sep 2010

In 2008 a four-year European project was launched under the 7th EURATOM Framework Programme (FP7-211333) to address the ‘Treatment and Disposal of Irradiated Graphite and other Carbonaceous Waste (CARBOWASTE)’.

Review of the Corrosion Performance of Selected Metals as Canister Materials for UK Spent Fuel and/or HLW

12 Aug 2010

NDA's Radioactive Waste Management Directorate (RWMD) has published independent research by Quintessa commissioned to review the performance of five potential metals that could be used in the manufacture of canisters for the disposal of High Level Waste (HLW) and Spent Fuel (SF) in a geological dis…

Dounreay Site Closure Strategy

29 Jul 2010

Dounreay in the north of Scotland is one of the most complex nuclear sites in the UK. Restoring the site involves the clean-up and demolition of the legacy of over 50 years work on fast reactor technology - including chemical plants, reactors and waste management infrastructure.

Research into Impacts and Safety in CO₂ Storage (RISCS)

20 Jul 2010

Quintessa is participating in the 4-year EC RISCS (Research into Impacts and Safety in CO2 Storage) project managed by the British Geological Survey.

Contribution to Performance Assessment Methods and Tools to CO2ReMoVe

14 Jul 2010

CO2ReMoVe is being carried out under the 6th Framework Programme of the European Union (EU), with funding from the EU and a number of major energy companies. The project aims to investigate the long term reliability and safety of geological CO2 storage. Another objective is to provide R&D to suppor…

Comparative Assessment of Potential CO₂ Storage Sites

13 Jul 2010

With assistance from Quintessa, Shell is developing a decision support tool for evaluating sub-surface CO2 storage risks consistently across a portfolio of sites.

Application for Coupled Process Modelling to CO₂ Storage

3 Jul 2010

QPAC is Quintessa's general-purpose modelling software for solving systems of partial differential and algebraic equations. It is used to solve a wide range of problems including those with strongly-coupled non-linear processes.

QPAC 3.0 Released

22 Jun 2010

Version 3.0 of QPAC, Quintessa’s in-house general-purpose modelling tool, was released in May. QPAC differs from traditional computer codes, in which the mathematical model to be solved is hard-wired into the software, by adopting a flexible ‘model as input’ approach.

10th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies - GHGT10

17 Jun 2010

Quintessa will be participating in the 10th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies (GHGT10) to be held in Amsterdam in September 2010

DECOVALEX-2011: Understanding the Hydro-Mechanical Behaviour of the Ventilation Experiment in Opalinus Clay at Mont Terri

1 Feb 2010

For the past 18 months Quintessa, in conjunction with the University of Edinburgh (UoE) and UFZ Leipzig, have been participating in the DECOVALEX-2011 project, in support of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority Radioactive Waste Management Directorate.

A New Beginning for AMBER

27 Jan 2010

We are pleased to announce that Quintessa has acquired the intellectual property rights (IPR) to the AMBER software package.

Portfolio Selection Tool for AGR Channel Inspections

20 Jan 2010

Quintessa has developed a custom portfolio selection tool, CHANSELA (Channel Selection Assistant), for EDF Energy (formerly British Energy), which supports decisions on which selection of channels of Advanced Gas Cooled Reactors (AGRs) should be inspected to support continued safe operation.

Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical Modelling of Bentonite in Project THERESA

18 Jan 2010

The recently completed THERESA project was an international co-operative research project sponsored by the European Commission undertaken between 2007 and 2009.

Treatment of Chemotoxic Species in the Environmental Safety Case for a Geological Disposal Facility

6 Jan 2010

Two reports on the treatment of chemotoxic species in the Environmental Safety Case for a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) for UK radioactive waste have been produced by Quintessa on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority Radioactive Waste Management Directorate (NDA RWMD).

IAEA Expert Mission to Ghana

4 Jan 2010

Richard Little was invited by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to undertake an expert mission to the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) based in Accra in December 2009.