UPDATE      

Welcome to the Spring 2005 edition of Quintessa Update, the electronic newsletter of Quintessa Limited.

Baita Bihor Safety Analysis

Quintessa has been awarded a contract under EuropeAid's PHARE programme to produce a preliminary safety analysis report (PSAR) for the Baita Bihor low-level radioactive waste repository in Romania. The Baita Bihor repository is located in the north-western part of the Carpathian Mountains in a disused uranium mine. It has been receiving institutional radioactive waste since 1985 and now contains approximately 1500 m3 of short and long-lived waste. The repository is owned and operated by the Horia Hulubei National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH), which is under the direction of the Ministry of Education and Research (MEC).

Quintessa is being supported by a team of sub-contractors including: the Subsidiary of Technology and Engineering for Nuclear Projects (SITON) (Romania); Mike Thorne and Associates Limited (UK); Geo Prospect S.R.L. (Romania); and IC Consultants Limited (UK). For more information, please contact Richard Little.


Project financed by EUROPEAN UNION		 The European Union supports Romania with expertise and financial resources in view of accession preparation, through three specific programmes: Phare, Ispa and Sapard. The beneficiary sectors vary from regional development and SME support, to investments in transport and environmental infrastructure and rural development. The total annual amount of funds allocated to Romania through the three pre-accession programmes is increasing from about 660 MEURO in 2003 to well over 1 billion in 2006. The management of these funds is done by the Romanian authorities, under the coordination of the Ministry for Public Finance.

 

Development of 'the RCLEA' Model for Radioactively Contaminated Land

The UK Government's Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is developing a regime for the regulation of radioactively contaminated land in the UK that is expected to come into force in the next year or so. The regime will focus on historic contamination where there is a potential need for intervention actions to reduce or avert radiation doses. Defra has commissioned Quintessa, supported by URS Corporation, to develop a 'Radioactively Contaminated Land Exposure Assessment' (RCLEA) model for quantitative risk assessment. The proposed approach will be consulted upon in late May and June 2005 (details will be available at www.safegrounds.com). For more information please contact James Penfold.