News from 2019

News Items

First Prize to Quintessa at Innovate4Manchester

4 Dec 2019

Linus Head attended the Innovate4Manchester competition from Tuesday 26th to Wednesday 27th November at the Manchester Science Park, held by Manchester City Council in collaboration with Geovation and Manchester Science Partnerships.

EOA Conference 2019

3 Dec 2019

The 14th Employee Ownership Association (EOA) Annual Conference was held in Birmingham on the 18th and 19th November 2019, and was attended by Alan Paulley, Amy Taylor, George Towler and Claire Watson on behalf of Quintessa, an employee-owned company from its inception 20 years ago.

COMSOL Conference 2019

25 Nov 2019

On 24th - 26th September 2019, Mark Pogson was one of the speakers at the COMSOL Conference 2019 in Cambridge. Mark gave a talk and presented a poster on the work Quintessa are undertaking in support of safety cases for the operation of the UK advanced gas-cooled reactor (AGR) fleet. Mark was also…

AMBER 6.4 Released

25 Oct 2019

Quintessa is pleased to announce that the latest version of AMBER has been released. AMBER 6.4 offers users new functionality and a number of new features.

Quintessa at Bath Autumn Careers Fair 2019

22 Oct 2019

Dr Mark Pogson and Linus Head attended the Autumn Careers & Placements Fair held at the University of Bath on Friday 18th October.

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

18 Oct 2019

The Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SSM) is tasked with reviewing the application of the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (SKB) for the expansion of the final repository for low and intermediate level waste at Forsmark (SFR). An important part of the application is SKB’s assess…

Quintessa presents new sports rating algorithm at OR Society conference

16 Oct 2019

Simon Rookyard presented Quintessa’s new algorithm for rating sports teams and individuals at the Operational Research Society’s annual conference, held 3rd-5th September 2019 at the University of Kent.

BIOPROTA C-14 Workshop

16 Oct 2019

Quintessa contributed to the technical support team for the latest BIOPROTA project relating to improving understanding and modelling of C-14 in the biosphere. Recent activities to support this improved understanding were discussed at a workshop held 10-11 April 2019, in Aix-en-Provence, France. Th…

NEA Publishes Updated International FEP List

30 Sep 2019

The Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) has recently published Version 3 of its International Feature, Event and Process (IFEP) List. It is available in two formats: as a PDF report; and via an online database which is designed to store the IFEP List and other project-specific FEP lists in an easily naviga…

Postclosure safety assessment support to Canadian Nuclear Laboratories

24 Sep 2019

Working alongside Arcadis Canada, Quintessa is supporting Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) in preparation of postclosure safety assessments for two key decommissioning projects: the in-situ disposal of the Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) facility; and the proposed Near Surface Disposal Facilit…

Introducing Quintessa Updates

17 Sep 2019

Quintessa’s new system for managing communication preferences and associated contact information, Quintessa Updates, is live.

Quintessa supporting Women’s and Girls’ Football

6 Sep 2019

Quintessa is proud to be one of the sponsors of the Wargrave Women and Girls Football Club. With over 350 registered players, the Wargrave Women and Girls Football Club is possibly the largest dedicated girls' and women's football club in the UK.

IAEA Helps Countries Build Knowledge on Safe Disposal of Disused Sealed Radioactive Sources

7 Aug 2019

Experts from 15 Member States, including Richard Little from Quintessa, recently attended a technical meeting at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna to examine suitable strategies for the disposal of disused sealed radioactive sources (DSRS) and assessing the safety of disposal…

University students Adam Hazell and Linus Head start their placement year at Quintessa

15 Jul 2019

Quintessa welcomes Adam Hazell and Linus Head from the University of Bath as they start placements with us as part of their respective undergraduate courses in Computer Science & Mathematics and Astrophysics.

Quintessa gives lectures at Radiological Protection Summer School

9 Jul 2019

James Penfold was an invited speaker at the 30ᵗʰ Annual Radiological Protection Summer School, held 1ˢᵗ to 5ᵗʰ July 2019 at Christ’s College, Cambridge, UK.

Development of total system model for non-radiological pollutants in a GDF

9 Jul 2019

A Quintessa-Golder team, working as part of the Nucleus Alliance, are supporting Radioactive Waste Management Limited (RWM) in an exploration of how the requirements of the EU Groundwater Daughter Directive (GWDD) might be met for the proposed Geological Disposal Facility (GDF).

Quintessa Celebrates UK Employee Ownership Day 2019

2 Jul 2019

Employee Owners at Quintessa were once again delighted to be part of the UK Employee Ownership (EO) Day, a national celebration of the positive impact of employee ownership.

Quintessa Gains Full Marks in Achilles Audit

28 Jun 2019

In order to work for certain clients such as EDF Energy, Quintessa needs to be on the Utilities Vendor Database (UVDB) which is maintained by Achilles. Quintessa’s annual Achilles UVDB Verify audit was carried out on 30ᵗʰ May 2019, and we gained full marks.

Amy Taylor joins Quintessa

27 Jun 2019

Quintessa is pleased to announce that Amy Taylor joined its Warrington office on 12ᵗʰ June 2019.

Quintessa's artist featured in Northwich Arts Festival 2019

20 Jun 2019

Quintessa's employees are known for more than just science! Laura Limer, who lists "arts and crafts" as some of her non-work interests, has two of her artworks on display as part of the Northwich Arts Trail 2019.

New publication on approaches to coupling cation exchange and mineral kinetics in models

13 May 2019

Steven Benbow, James Wilson, Richard Metcalfe and Jarmo Lehikoinen of the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority in Finland (STUK) have recently had the results of a study into bentonite reactive transport modelling approaches published in Clay Minerals.

ATLAS Alliance awarded ONR Technical Support Framework Contract

15 Apr 2019

Quintessa is delighted to announce that the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) have recently awarded the ATLAS Alliance a contract on the new Technical Support Framework. The framework will allow the ONR access to expert technical reviews and niche skill sets that the ATLAS Alliance has and will b…

Quintessa Reaches the Gold Standard

18 Mar 2019

Quintessa has been awarded accreditation against the Investors in People Standard at the gold level, demonstrating their continuing commitment to realising the potential of their employees.

36ᵗʰ Technical Meeting of the Mont Terri Project

11 Mar 2019

The 36ᵗʰ Technical Meeting of the Mont Terri Project was held in Switzerland on the 5ᵗʰ and 6ᵗʰ of February 2019. Rebecca Newson attended from Quintessa. At the meeting, updates were given regarding ongoing and proposed experiments at the Mont Terri rock laboratory. The meeting was followed by a da…

Quintessa Celebrates 20 Years of Operation

5 Mar 2019

On 1ˢᵗ March 2019, Quintessa Limited celebrated 20 years of operation. Some key events in terms of its employees, clients, software, offices and accreditations in those 20 years are shown on the timeline below.

Byran Lovell meeting: Role of geological science in the decarbonisation of power production, heat, transport and industry. The Year of Carbon 2019.

18 Feb 2019

The Bryan Lovell meeting was held in London at the Geological Society on the 21ˢᵗ, 22ⁿᵈ and 23ʳᵈ January 2019. 29 presentations were given, 10 posters presented, and the latter parts of the afternoons were allocated to panel-led discussions. Attending from Quintessa was Emma Cairns.

Safety Assessment Training Course in Warrington

24 Jan 2019

Quintessa delivered a training course relating to the safety assessment of gaseous releases from radioactive waste disposal facilities to the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS) in December 2018 at our Warrington office.