News from 2023

News Items

Guide to Reference Groundwater and Porewater Compositions

15 Dec 2023

Radioactive Waste Management Limited (RWM), trading as Nuclear Waste Services (NWS), has recently published the Guide to reference groundwater and porewater compositions. This report has been prepared by British Geological Survey (BGS) in collaboration with Quintessa, as an output for the project R…

Generic Database of Features, Events and Processes (FEPs) for Well Decommissioning

14 Dec 2023

Quintessa has developed a generic database of features, events and processes (FEPs) for the decommissioning of wells or boreholes. The FEP database was developed to support the transition to a net zero-carbon-emitting economy which will require multiple uses of the subsurface, all requiring the use…

Quintessa’s Warrington Office Relocates

22 Nov 2023

On Wednesday 22ⁿᵈ November, our Warrington Office is moving.

Quintessa's Henley Office Relocates

22 Sep 2023

On Friday 22ⁿᵈ September, our Henley Office will be moving.

Development of the Environment Agency’s Initial Radiological Assessment Tool 2 (IRAT2)

20 Sep 2023

Quintessa have been closely involved in a revision of the Environment Agency’s initial radiological assessment methodology (‘IRAT’), which was first published in 2006. The latest version uses updated models and data, includes additional radionuclides and exposure groups, and incorporates an assessm…

Modelling Package Scale Gas Generation for COVRA

7 Sep 2023

The Central Organisation for Radioactive Waste (COVRA) is the sole company in the Netherlands tasked with collecting, processing and storing all radioactive waste. It holds an annual meeting at which it presents the research and development (R&D) work it and its contractors are undertaking. Steve B…

Containment Risk Assessment to support the application for a CO₂ Appraisal and Storage Licence

30 Aug 2023

Spirit Energy is maturing plans for the conversion of its Morecambe Bay gas hub into a net zero cluster of national scale and importance. To support those plans, Quintessa has conducted a preliminary subsurface risk and hazard assessment contributing to Spirit Energy’s application for a Carbon Diox…

University students Jen Wilson and Tom Robson start their placement year at Quintessa

3 Aug 2023

Quintessa welcomes Jen Wilson from the University of Manchester and Tom Robson from the University of Bath as they start placements with us as part of undergraduate courses in Environmental Science and Physics with Astrophysics, respectively.

Quintessa delivers the Dounreay Site End State work

2 Aug 2023

Quintessa, with WSP and NSG Environmental, helped Dounreay - a division of Magnox Ltd - to reassess the Dounreay ‘Site End State’ in a project undertaken between 2020 and 2022.

Tailored AMBER training course delivered to Assystem

6 Jul 2023

In June 2023, Quintessa provided a week-long in-person tailored AMBER training course to two Assystem (BU C2D - Cycle, Dismantling, Defence) employees.

EGC1: Quintessa attends Energy Geoscience Conference

5 Jul 2023

In May 2023, Quintessa attended the 1ˢᵗ Energy Geoscience Conference (EGC1) in Aberdeen which built upon and superseded the highly successful Petroleum Geology Conference series. The aim of the new EGC series is to explore and develop the contribution of geology and geophysics to the low-carbon ene…

DECOVALEX-2023 Workshop held in South Korea

4 Jul 2023

Quintessa recently participated in the 7ᵗʰ workshop of the DECOVALEX project, hosted by the Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) in Busan, South Korea. The DECOVALEX project (DEvelopment of COupled models and their VALidation against EXperiments) is an international research and model co…

AMBER 6.7 Released

3 Jul 2023

Quintessa is pleased to announce that the latest version of AMBER has been released. AMBER 6.7 includes new features to support the quality assurance of AMBER models, as well as a number of calculation and usability improvements and bug fixes.

Quintessa attends Waste Management Conference

2 Jun 2023

Emma Rhodes and Alan Paulley attended this year's Waste Management Symposia Conference in Phoenix, Arizona.

Success for Quintessa employee at National Concert Band Festival

25 Apr 2023

As well as being scientists, mathematicians and software developers, several of Quintessa's employees are also keen musicians. Rebecca Newson, clarinet player and Chair of Trinity Concert Band, recently participated in the National Concert Band Festival where the band won the top Platinum award.

Quintessa continues to provide support to the Northern Endurance Partnership

13 Apr 2023

Quintessa has recently supported the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) through independent review of subsurface Early Risk Assessments for the expansion stores beyond Phase 1 at the Endurance store. This work builds on the support that Quintessa provided to the NEP previously, which focussed on…

Application of AMBER to the Disposal of DSRS

10 Mar 2023

The use of narrow diameter boreholes for the disposal of disused sealed radioactive sources (DSRS) is being supported by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Malaysia and Ghana. In Malaysia, preparatory work borehole facility construction is currently in its final stages, and it is expe…

Quintessa introduces updates to the "Subsurface Space" and "Software" sections of the website

27 Jan 2023

Quintessa’s website has been evolving since its inception back in 1999, and we are pleased to announce that we have just launched the latest update to the design and contents of its "Subsurface Space" and "Software" sections.

AMBER reaches its 30ᵗʰ Birthday

26 Jan 2023

It is now 30 years since the first user requirements document was written for the compartment modelling tool, AMBER. The tool has evolved significantly since then! It now allows users to build and visualise 3D dynamic compartment models of contaminants in environmental, biological and engineered sy…

How did Quintessa’s Sports Rating Algorithm Perform for the 2022 FIFA World Cup?

16 Jan 2023

Quintessa mathematicians and scientists enjoy analysing numbers. Over the last few months, Simon Rookyard and Jodie Stone have put Quintessa’s Sports Rating Algorithm to the test, providing predictions for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Now that the competition is complete, it’s time to evaluate the algo…