The latest version of AMBER has been released to existing customers with software maintenance agreements. This version includes the capacity to save scenes in the 3D spatial view, accompanied by the following new features:

• flexibility to select cells shown and camera angle;
• axes exaggeration in the 3D spatial view;
• the ability to adjust column widths when editing and viewing parameters with multiplicity.

In addition to the features listed above, AMBER 6.4 includes other minor feature updates and various bug fixes. For further details, see the AMBER 6.4 Release Note.

If you have a current software maintenance agreement, please download AMBER 6.4. If not, you can download AMBER 6.4 Demo.

If you would like to renew your maintenance agreement or purchase AMBER, please contact us.

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 Facility (NSDF) on CNL’s Chalk River site in Ontario.

Both assessments are being undertaken using an iterative approach and are being carried out using international best practice in the form of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA’s) Improving Safety Assessment Methodologies (ISAM) guidance. The calculations have been undertaken using AMBER. Results from the work have been presented at two conferences during 2019:

• WM2019 (Waste Management Symposium 2019) in Phoenix, USA, March 3-7, 2019; and
• the 4th Nuclear Waste Management, Decommissioning and Environmental Restoration (NWMDER) Conference in Ottawa, Canada, September 8-11, 2019 (see above photo).

For further details, read the full news story.

The following publications from 2018 and 2019 cite the use of AMBER.

• Gobien M, Garisto F, Kremer E and Medri C (2018). Seventh Case Study: Reference Data and Codes. Nuclear Waste Management Organization report TR-2018-10, Toronto, Canada.
• NWMO (2018). Postclosure Safety Assessment of a Used Fuel Repository in Sedimentary Rock. Nuclear Waste Management Organization report TR-2018-08, Toronto, Canada.
• Poškas P, Kilda R, Šimonis A, Jouhara H and Poškas R (2019). Disposal of very low-level radioactive waste: Lithuanian case on the approach and long-term safety aspects. Science of the Total Environment, 667, 464-474.
• Thorne M, Smith K, Kovalets I, Avila R and Walke R (2018). C-14 in the Biosphere: Terrestrial Model-Data Comparisons and Review of Carbon Uptake by Fish. A BIOPROTA report.

Quintessa is fully committed to the long-term development and support of AMBER, with on-going development and annual software updates. Developments planned for the future include allowing spatial models to evolve with time due to long-term processes such as erosion.

We very much welcome feedback about AMBER, including ideas and suggestions for further developments that would help maintain its utility and applicability to a wide range of contaminant transport and risk assessment situations.

Quintessa continues to support AMBER, both through directed support to licence holders and by applying the software to safety and performance assessment studies of contaminants in the environment. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions about AMBER, its application and/or about our associated support and training programme.