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Criticality & Shielding

Vectra has recently established technical capability in the area of criticality safety and radiation shielding assessment.  This team of highly skilled and experienced consultants has leading expertise in the design of new plants covering the whole of the nuclear fuel cycle, as well as in the operation and decommissioning of nuclear facilities.

This experience has included the development of criticality and shielding designs for major capital projects such as the THORP and the Sellafield MOX Plant, as well as numerous other facilities for the manufacture of reactor fuel and the handling, treatment, packaging and storage of nuclear wastes and materials.

Our team has significant experience in liaising with the UK industry regulator, the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII), and is fully cognisant of the requirements of the revised NII Safety Assessment Principles (SAPs), as well as remaining up-to-date with accepted criteria, methodology and substantiation in modern standards safety cases.

We have extensive expertise in the requirements of the IAEA Transport Regulations (TS-R-1) that govern the off-site transport of radioactive materials, through the criticality safety and shielding assessment of new design and operational transport packages for the shipment of reactor fuels, nuclear materials and radioactive wastes.  This has required close liaison with the UK competent authority, the Department for Transport (DfT).

We are able to advise on all aspects of criticality emergency planning, including the definition of arrangements, the determination of dose contours, CIDAS omission cases and the placement of CIDAS systems.

The team has actively participated in the development of national and international standards and criteria, through organisations such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).  In addition, we have taken an active role in the activities of the UK Working Party on Criticality.

Vectra staff are fully conversant with the industry standard criticality and shielding computer codes, including MONK, MCNP, SCALE, MCBEND, RANKERN and Microshield.

We can supply the expertise and capability to meet all of your requirements in this important safety technical area, including: 

  • Criticality safety assessment;
  • Operational and decommissioning support;
  • Radiation shielding and dose assessment;
  • Criticality emergency planning;
  • Independent nuclear safety assessment (INSA);
  • Front-end criticality safety and shielding design advice;
  • Radioactive materials transport. 

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