Galson Sciences Ltd - Recent News
December 2012 - Joint Development of Plugging and Sealing Technology for Geological Disposal Facilities (The DOPAS Project)
Fourteen nuclear waste management organisations and research institutes from eight European countries are participating in a technology development project for testing plugging and sealing systems for geological disposal facilities for radioactive waste - the DOPAS project ("Full-Scale Demonstration Of Plugs And Seals"). The project is built around a set of full-scale underground demonstrations, laboratory experiments, and performance assessment studies. The project budget is €15.7 million, and is jointly funded by the Euratom's Seventh Framework Programme (€8.7 million) and European nuclear waste management organisations. The project is running in the period September 2012 - August 2016, and is being coordinated by Posiva Oy, a nuclear waste management company in Finland.
The project will compile the design basis of plugs and seals, develop new technology for plug and seal materials and for the assembly and construction of plug and seal systems, carry out full or partial design of the systems, and perform five full-scale plug and seal tests. The tests will be carried out in research facilities representative of varying geological environments in Finland, France, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Germany. In addition, the performance of the plugs and seals will be assessed and compared to design requirements. A further task is to inform the wider radioactive waste management community about the work and results of DOPAS, via attendance at international scientific meetings and project publications. In 2016, the project team will organise an international seminar on plugging and sealing technology for geological disposal of radioactive waste.
GSL's role in the project includes working with waste management organisations (i) to define the requirements and design bases of plugs and seals, (ii) to prepare a summary report evaluating the results of the full-scale plug and seal tests against the design requirements, and (iii) to prepare the report of the 2016 international seminar. For further information, please contact Matt White at GSL.
January 2012 - Further growth of the company
GSL is pleased to announce the addition of four consultants (Ben Winpenny, Jen McTeer, Slimane Doudou and James Solano) and one administration support person (Antonia Profit) to its Oakham team. Adding to our highly qualified and skilled pool of staff helps us address our increasing workload on radioactive waste management and disposal projects in the UK and overseas, and also ensures that we continue to meet our clients' expectations in terms of quality of work and timeliness of deliverables.
April 2011 - ASSessment, Integration and Strategy Team
The ASSIST (ASSessment, Integration and Strategy Team) consortium consisting of Galson Sciences, Quintessa and AREVA RMC has been awarded a four-year framework contract to supply the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority - Radioactive Waste Management Directorate (NDA RWMD) with assessment and support services for the Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) programme. The indicative total funding for the contract is between £2M and £12M. In order to provide an effective and efficient service to NDA RWMD, ASSIST has formed a cross-company management team consisting of Matt White (Galson Sciences), Sarah Watson (Quintessa), and Ann Rostern (AREVA RMC). For more information, please contact Matt White.
April 2011 - NDA RWMD Research Services
Galson Sciences is part of a consortium of 18 organisations led by AMEC that has been awarded a four-year framework contract to supply the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority - Radioactive Waste Management Directorate (NDA RWMD) with research services in support of the Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) programme. The indicative total funding for the contract is between £4M and £24M. The framework will cover research on a broad range of areas including wasteforms, containers, near-field behaviour, geosphere evolution, gas generation and migration, radionuclide behaviour, criticality safety, and the biosphere. For more information, please contact Liz Harvey.
April 2011 - Specialist Nuclear Services to the NDA and its SLCs
Galson Sciences is part of a consortium of six organisations, led by Hyder Consulting (UK), that has been awarded a four-year framework contract to provide the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and its Site Licence Companies (Dounreay Site Restoration Limited, Low Level Waste Repository Limited, Magnox Limited, Research Sites Restoration Limited and Sellafield Limited) with Specialist Nuclear Services. The other partners on this consortium are Bradtec (ONET), Inutec, REACT Engineering and Venn Engineering. For more information, please contact Steve Wickham.
March 2011 - Award of three-year contract to support DSRL
Galson Sciences Ltd is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a three-year contract to support Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd (DSRL) with the development of an Environmental Safety Case (ESC) for planned new Low Level Waste (LLW) disposal facilities at Dounreay. This contract award continues a 12-year partnership with DSRL on this project. The disposal vaults are a critical project for Dounreay to enable ongoing decommissioning operations at the Dounreay Site. Vault construction is due to commence in late 2011. In order to obtain regulatory approval to dispose of wastes, DSRL must develop an ESC acceptable to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA).
September 2010 - Marek joins GSL
Galson Sciences Ltd is pleased to welcome Dr Marek Pękala as the latest addition to our highly qualified and skilled pool of staff. Marek has degrees in geology (MSc, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland) and geochemistry (PhD, University of Berne, Switzerland). Marek has specialist experience in geochemical modelling of radionuclide transport through argillaceous media. We continue to seek additional, highly qualified and motivated staff to add to our workforce, to help us address our increasing workload on radioactive waste management and disposal projects in the UK and overseas. Please see the recruitment pages if you are interested!
October 2009 - GSL staff present work at ICEM‘09
GSL staff attended the 12th International Conference on Environmental Remediation and Radioactive Waste Management (ICEM'09/DECOM'09), held in Liverpool on 11-15 October 2009. Staff papers/presentations covered a range of the work that GSL has been undertaking on behalf of UK and overseas clients in the last year, including the following (presenter and paper number given in brackets):
- Contingency Options for the Drying, Conditioning and Packaging of Magnox Spent Fuel in the UK (Jenny Morris, ). Click here to download a copy of the presentation.
Contingency Options for the Dry Storage of Magnox Spent Fuel in the UK (Steve Wickham, 16330). Click here to download a copy of the presentation.
Approaches for Modelling Transient Unsaturated-Saturated Groundwater Flow During and After Construction (Matt White, 16242). Click here to download a copy of the presentation.
Implementation of a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) in the UK by the NDA RWMD: The Potential for Interaction between the Co-Located ILW/LLW and HLW/SF Components of a GDF (Tim Hicks, 16306). Click here to download a copy of the presentation.
Design Options for the UK's ILW Geological Disposal Facility (Tim Hicks, 16241). Click here to download a copy of the presentation.
NUMO-RMS: A Practical Requirements Management System for the Long-term Management of the Deep Geological Disposal Project (presenter Hiroyoshi Ueda of NUMO, GSL co-authors Matt White and Roger Wilmot, 16304).
September 2009 - New staff member
The UK nuclear industry is experiencing renewed interest, both for the construction of new nuclear stations and for the decommissioning of the existing nuclear infrastructure and the disposal of resulting wastes. Overseas, radioactive waste disposal programmes are actively underway in Belgium, Finland, France, Sweden, Japan and the United States, amongst others. We are active in all of these areas and projects. To manage the increase in workload resulting from these developments and to keep the company abreast of the associated challenges, we have added to our highly qualified and skilled pool of staff with the recruitment of Emily Michie. Emily has degrees in materials science and engineering (MEng Hons. and PhD) from Imperial College, London. We are seeking additional staff to add to our workforce. Please see the recruitment pages if you are interested!
January 2009 - Dounreay
Over the last decade, GSL has been heavily involved in the development and implementation of a strategy for the management of LLW at Dounreay - the UK's former centre of fast reactor research. Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd received local authority planning approval in January 2009 for new near-surface LLW disposal facilities located adjacent to the existing site - see http://www.dounreay.com/news/2009-01-13/council-approves-110m-waste-plan-for-dounreay. GSL project work included development of the necessary environmental safety cases. GSL is committed to continuing to support Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd in the construction and licencing of the new facilities.