News from 2017

News Items

Quintessa is Recruiting

13 Dec 2017

Due to our continued success in winning work in the areas of radioactive waste management and nuclear site restoration, a permanent position has arisen for an experienced scientific consultant who would be capable of acting as a technical and commercial lead for such projects. The position can be b…

Quintessa’s Continuing Support to SSM’s Review of SKB’s Safety Assessment SR-PSU

12 Dec 2017

In November 2017, the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SSM) published a series of reports associated with the main phase of the review of SKB’s assessment (SR-PSU) of the long-term safety for the expansion of the final repository for low and intermediate level waste at Forsmark (SFR).

IAEA launches new forum on the Safety of Near Surface Disposal

30 Nov 2017

In October 2017, the IAEA held the first Technical Meeting for their new forum on the Safety of Near Surface Disposal in Vienna.

Modelling Geothermal Heat Extraction from Abandoned Mine Workings and Associated Ground Stability Issues

20 Nov 2017

Quintessa are supporting an exciting new PhD research project at the University of Edinburgh, continuing our close cooperation with Chris McDermott. Fiona Todd (pictured) will be investigating the practicality of using flooded, abandoned mine workings as a geothermal heat source – potentially a key…

Patricia Verrier Joins Quintessa

20 Nov 2017

Quintessa is pleased to announce that Patricia Verrier joined its Henley-on-Thames office on 20ᵗʰ November 2017.

Expert Mission to Slovakia

31 Oct 2017

Part of the mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is to support knowledge sharing and training activities relating to all aspects of work with radiation. Quintessa staff regularly provide technical experts for IAEA Missions to a wide range of countries, mainly to support their de…

Sellafield Directors Forum

30 Oct 2017

Sellafield Limited launched a number of new supply chain initiatives at its Director’s Forum at Energus in Workington on 28 September 2017. Quintessa’s James Penfold was amongst around 400 attendees who heard Sellafield’s Supply Chain team describe how the site intends to break down barriers for bu…

NDA Supply Chain Event 2017

27 Oct 2017

The Nucleus Alliance will be attending the NDA Estate Supply Chain Event on Thursday 2nd November at EventCity, Manchester. This is the seventh year that the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and its Site Licence Companies (SLCs) have provided this networking opportunity for companies support…

Presenting International Collaborations at ICRER 2017

4 Oct 2017

Laura Limer and Russell Walke participated in the 4ᵗʰ International Conference on Radioecology and Environmental Radioactivity (ICRER), which was held 3-8 September 2017 in Berlin.

AMBER 6.2 Released

6 Sep 2017

Quintessa is pleased to announce that the latest version of AMBER has been released to existing customers with software maintenance agreements.

Mathilde Santucci’s Summer Internship at Quintessa

6 Sep 2017

In July 2017, Mathilde Santucci worked at Quintessa for four weeks during her summer vacation from Aix-Marseille University – Polytech engineering school, where she is studying for a degree in Engineering.

Sharing an uncertain world – lessons in managing risk

4 Sep 2017

On 13ᵗʰ and 14ᵗʰ July, Quintessa attended a conference “Sharing an Uncertain World: Lessons in Managing Risk” at the Geological Society, Burlington House. The meeting was one of a series of events on the topic of risk, which is the Geological Society’s theme for 2017, its “Year of Risk”.

Initial Workshop for Beacon: Bentonite Mechanical Evolution

21 Aug 2017

Quintessa is playing a leading role in the EURATOM Horizon2020 project "Beacon: Bentonite Mechanical Evolution". The Initial Workshop for this project was hosted by the Lithuanian Energy Institute in Kaunas, Lithuania, in June 2017.

University students Ben McMahon and Matt Foster start their placement year at Quintessa

8 Aug 2017

Quintessa welcomes Ben McMahon and Matt Foster from the University of Bath as they start placements with us as part of 'thick-sandwich' Masters courses in Mathematics & Physics and in Mathematics, respectively.

Quintessa is Recruiting

26 Jul 2017

Due to our continued success in winning work in mathematical and statistical modelling of complex systems (e.g., nuclear reactors, wave energy convertors, geological storage facilities for carbon dioxide and radioactive waste repositories) and associated scientific software development, a permanent…

Rebecca Newson rejoins Quintessa

17 Jul 2017

Rebecca Newson has joined Quintessa’s Henley-on-Thames office, where she is a member of the Assessment and Decision Support team. She has received a first class honours degree in physics from the University of Bath.

Employee Ownership Effect Inquiry

17 Jul 2017

Over the summer, an independent panel of business leaders, chaired by Baroness Bowles of Berkhamstead, is eliciting evidence about the potential of employee ownership and its contributions to UK productivity growth and corporate behaviour. Seven Ownership Effect panel hearings are being held around…

Improved Visualisation of Mathematical Model Output

13 Jul 2017

Quintessa has recently updated its in-house software tools for the visualisation of mathematical model output. As well as improving our existing tool, QPAC Viewer, we can now export model output data to VTK format using ShapeShifter. This enables us to harness the power of third-party visualisation…

Graph Grabber 2.0 Released

29 Jun 2017

A major update of Quintessa’s free Graph Grabber tool, which allows users to extract data points from a graph image, has been released. The update includes the addition of automatic curve detection as well as a full redesign of the user interface.

BIOPROTA Annual Meeting May 2017

23 Jun 2017

The BIOPROTA annual meeting was held 8-9 May, 2017, hosted by the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ENSI) in Brugg, Switzerland. The meeting was organised by the BIOPROTA technical secretariat, provided by Quintessa and RadEcol, and was attended by 26 people representing a range of waste…

David Hodgkinson Retires after 45 years’ service to the Nuclear Industry

22 May 2017

David Hodgkinson, Quintessa’s founder and first Managing Director, has decided to retire after a long and illustrious career in the nuclear industry spanning 45 years which has included: research fellowships at European Centre for Nuclear Research and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; responsi…

Quintessa Relocates to the Midlands for Two Days

11 May 2017

On 3rd and 4th May Quintessa employees held an offsite meeting at New Hall Hotel in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham. As well as providing us with a wonderful opportunity to meet up in an enjoyable non-work environment, the two days allowed for some training, strategizing and discussions on wellbeing.

Climate and Landscape Change Modelling and its Application to Assessment of Safety of Radioactive Waste Disposal the UK

8 May 2017

The long timescales involved in assessing safety of radioactive waste disposal means that the potential for climate and landscape evolution typically need to be taken into account. Quintessa has taken the technical lead of a four-year project to support Radioactive Waste Management Ltd’s (RWM) cont…

ICGR 2016: The Fifth International Conference on Geological Repositories

19 Apr 2017

On 7-9 December 2016, the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) hosted the fifth International Conference on Geological Repositories (ICGR 2016) jointly with the French National Radioactive Waste Management Agency, Andra, in Paris, France.

Review of CLESA PCRSA for Sellafield Ltd

2 Mar 2017

The Calder Landfill Extension Segregated Area (CLESA) is an Environmental Permitting Regulations (EPR) authorised Low Activity - Low Level Waste (LA-LLW) containment landfill for the disposal of non-hazardous radioactive waste generated at Sellafield. A team from AECOM and Quintessa have recently w…

SSM’s External Experts’ Reviews of SKB’s Safety Assessment SR-PSU

15 Feb 2017

The Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SSM) has received an application for the expansion of SKB’s final repository for low and intermediate level waste at Forsmark (SFR). SSM is tasked with the review of the application and will issue a statement to the government who will decide on the matter. A…

GHGT-13: International Developments in CCS

14 Feb 2017

In November 2016, Quintessa attended the 13th Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies (GHGT-13), in Lausanne, Switzerland.

NDA Estate Supply Chain Event 2016

6 Jan 2017

Quintessa supported the Nucleus stand at the NDA Estate Supply Chain Event in November 2016.