News from 2018

News Items

Quintessa Obtains ISO 27001 Accreditation

20 Dec 2018

We are pleased to announce that our management system has been independently certified by DNV GL to operate in accordance with the Information Security Management System requirements of ISO 27001:2013. The scope covers all aspects of the Company’s electronic and paper-based data handling systems an…

Employee Ownership Association Annual Conference 2018

29 Nov 2018

The 13ᵗʰ Employee Ownership Association (EOA) Annual Conference was held in Birmingham on the 19ᵗʰ and 20ᵗʰ November 2018. 650 participants took part in 29 seminars and workshops. Attending from Quintessa were Claire Watson, Kate Thatcher, Patricia Verrier, Mark Pogson and Emma Cairns.

Study into Sealing of Deep Site Investigation Boreholes

13 Nov 2018

In July 2018, Radioactive Waste Management Limited (RWM) published the final report of Phase 2 of their Sealing deep site investigation boreholes project.

NDA Estate Supply Chain Event 2018

30 Oct 2018

The Nucleus Alliance will be attending the NDA Estate Supply Chain Event on Thursday 1ˢᵗ November at EventCity, Manchester. This is the eighth year that the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and its Site Licence Companies (SLCs) have provided this networking opportunity for companies supporti…

Study into the formation mechanism of spherical carbonate concretions

29 Oct 2018

Richard Metcalfe has assisted with geochemical interpretations during a study into the formation mechanism of spherical carbonate concretions.

AMBER 6.3 Released

26 Oct 2018

Quintessa is pleased to announce that the latest version of AMBER has been released. With AMBER 6.3, users can now render the values of parameters in the 3D view of the model. By scrolling through the model timeframe, the evolution of results, such as calculated amounts of concentrations, can be…

Shielding Awareness Course

26 Oct 2018

Radiation doses from photons and neutrons can be calculated using relatively simple physics, but are often complicated geometrically.

Quintessa sponsors IGSC 2018 Symposium

25 Oct 2018

Quintessa was pleased to support the Nuclear Energy Agency as one of the organisations sponsoring the Integration Group for the Safety Case (IGSC) Symposium 2018. The symposium was held on the 10ᵗʰ and 11ᵗʰ of October 2018, on the SS Rotterdam in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and was hosted by COVRA.

Quintessa has Relocated its Henley Office

1 Oct 2018

On Monday 1st October 2018, our Henley Office relocated to larger premises.

COMSOL Day Manchester

1 Oct 2018

On the 10ᵗʰ October 2018, Alex Bond is one of the invited speakers at the COMSOL Day Manchester. Alex will be talking about work that Quintessa are undertaking in support of the safety case for the operation of the UK advanced gas-cooled reactor (AGR) fleet.

Presenting Research at WM2018

20 Sep 2018

Quintessa presented two papers at Waste Management Symposium 2018 (WM2018) in Phoenix, Arizona, March 18-22, 2018. The papers from WM2018 were published in July 2018.

Reactive-transport modelling of the LCS in situ experiment

3 Sep 2018

Quintessa co-authored a paper on geochemical modelling of the in situ “LCS Experiment 2” published in Applied Geochemistry.

Emma Cairns joins Quintessa

6 Aug 2018

Quintessa is pleased to announce that Emma Cairns joined its Warrington office on 6ᵗʰ August 2018.

Discrete Fracture Network Engineering Conference 2018

2 Aug 2018

Alex Bond recently attended the second International Conference on Discrete Fracture Network Engineering (DFNE-2018), held in Seattle, USA. The meeting immediately followed the American Rock Mechanics Association (ARMA) Symposium 2018, attracting over 200 delegates from a wide range of backgrounds,…

Quintessa Celebrates UK Employee Ownership Day

17 Jul 2018

UK Employee Ownership (EO) Day, which fell on the 29ᵗʰ of June this year, is a national celebration of employee ownership organised by the Employee Ownership Association (EOA). The EOA is a not-for-profit and politically independent organisation that represents businesses that are employee owned or…

Reactive Transport Modelling of a Cementitious Backfill

12 Jul 2018

Quintessa authored paper on reactive transport modelling of a cementitious backfill published in Cement and Concrete Research. The models explore cement-groundwater interactions relevant to a deep geological disposal facility for radioactive wastes.

University students Louise Bruffell and Steven Fan start their placement year at Quintessa

5 Jul 2018

Quintessa welcomes Louise Bruffell and Steven Fan from the University of Bath as they start placements with us as part of undergraduate courses in Mathematics.

The Ownership Dividend - findings and recommendations of the Ownership Effect Inquiry

29 Jun 2018

The Ownership Dividend report launched on the 27ᵗʰ June at the Institute of Directors presents the findings and recommendations of the independent Ownership Effect Inquiry chaired by Baroness Sharon Bowles.

First Annual Meeting for Beacon: Bentonite Mechanical Evolution

19 Jun 2018

In May 2018, Quintessa attended the first Annual Meeting of the Euratom Beacon (Bentonite Mechanical Evolution) project in Milos, Greece.

BIOPROTA Report on Issues Affecting the Assessment of Impacts of Disposal of Radioactive and Hazardous Waste

6 Jun 2018

In May 2018, the Norwegian Radiological Protection Authority published a report entitled: "Issues Affecting the Assessment of Impacts of Disposal of Radioactive and Hazardous Waste".

Privacy Policy Updates

24 May 2018

An update to Quintessa's Website Privacy Policy and a new General Privacy Policy came into effect on 23 May 2018.

Mark Pogson joins Quintessa

2 Feb 2018

Quintessa is pleased to announce that Mark Pogson joined its Warrington office on 1ˢᵗ February 2018.

NEA publishes Sourcebook of International Activities Related to the Development of Safety Cases for Deep Geological Repositories

15 Jan 2018

Quintessa has provided technical support to the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) in the preparation of the recently published Sourcebook of International Activities Related to the Development of Safety Cases for Deep Geological Repositories.

Managing Voidage in a GDF: Towards a Methodology for Evaluating Voidage in Waste Packaging Proposals

12 Jan 2018

Radioactive Waste Management Limited (RWM) is undertaking a multi-year programme of work to consider the implications of voidage for the post-closure safety of a geological disposal facility (GDF) for higher activity waste.

AMBER Training Course in Henley-on-Thames

10 Jan 2018

Quintessa staff delivered an AMBER training course to the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS) in December 2017 at our Henley-on-Thames office.

Further Fame for Quintessa's World Champion!

9 Jan 2018

Quintessa's employees are known for more than just science! Over the festive period BBC Radio 5 Live invited Simon Rookyard onto the airwaves to talk about one of his more unusual areas of interest; porridge.

Issues Affecting the Assessment of Impacts of Disposal of Radioactive and Hazardous Waste presented at “Regulatory Supervision of Legacy Sites: the Process from Recognition to Resolution” Workshop

8 Jan 2018

From 21ˢᵗ to 23ʳᵈ November 2017, James Wilson attended an international workshop hosted by Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority (NRPA) in Lillehammer entitled: “Regulatory Supervision of Legacy Sites: The Process from Recognition to Resolution”.

Updated CLESA PCRSA and ORSA for Sellafield Ltd

5 Jan 2018

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…

Employee Ownership Association Annual Conference 2017

3 Jan 2018

The 12ᵗʰ Employee Ownership Association (EOA) Annual Conference was held in Birmingham on the 27ᵗʰ and 28ᵗʰ November 2017. Among the 680 participants, representing 200,000 employee owners across the UK, were Claire Watson, Kate Thatcher, Rebecca Newson, James Kite and David Hodgkinson from Quintess…