aurora news

10/08/11 Conference News

Thank you to all the delegates who attended the Aurora Conference on 21st June 2011. The event was held give our many valued clients an opportunity to find out about any changes in the Regulations, talk to current Regulators, hear about some Aurora case studies, and network with likeminded professionals.

A range of speakers presented on topics including radioactive waste disposal, compliance with Regulations and Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORM).

The Conference was a great success and with some very positive feedback about the day from our clients:

‘A valuable event with interesting presentations and spotless organisation’

‘A very good spread of talks, and some really interesting stuff I didn't know about NORM’

‘It was a very well organised and informative event. Thank you’

‘Excellent mix of topics and all good presentations. Well done’

It is intended to follow up the very positive response to the inaugural Aurora Conference with similar Conferences in the future. Future Conference themes will be based on topics such as regulatory frameworks for radiation protection, decommissioning and land remediation, future developments in radiation protection.

08/06/11 Visit of Nuclear Scientists from Kazakhstan and Ukraine

Allan May made a presentation to a group of scientists from nuclear research institutes in Kazakhstan and Ukraine visiting Aurora HP on 18 May. This was part of a study visit to the UK arranged by Jonathan Perks (AEA) and Christopher Perks (Landauer Europe) to enable them to get a detailed understanding of radiation dosimetry practices in the UK so that they can develop services in their own countries. The group included scientists from the Institute of Radiation Safety and Ecology, Kurchatov, Semipalatinsk, and the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Almaty, both in Kazakhstan and Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology in Ukraine. (The Soviet Union’s nuclear weapons test site was situated in the Semipalatinsk region of Kazakhstan.)

The visit was sponsored by the Closed Nuclear Centres Programme (CNCP) which is aimed at helping former nuclear weapons specialists in former Soviet Union countries develop new sustainable income streams. This is part of the UK’s contribution to the G8 Global Threat Reduction Programme which was set up to reduce the residual threat from FSU’s cold war weapons programme. It is managed by the Department for Energy and Climate Change, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence. Other parts of the programme are concerned with decommissioning nuclear plants (including submarines) and improving the safety and security of special nuclear materials.

The CNCP Programme is being carried out by HTSPE Ltd in partnership with AEA. Initially the Programme was focused on the closed nuclear cities in Russia, but was extended to cover several of the republics of the former Soviet Union including, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. There has also been a similar programme funded by FCO in Libya which was recently stopped!

In particular, it was very helpful for them to understand how a private company provides radiation protection services to a wide range of customers.

One of the participants wrote “I'd like to say thank you very much for organizing so interesting and useful tour and for giving me the opportunity to make the acquaintance with so fantastic a place as Oxford.”

Thank you to Aurora for making this visit so enjoyable and useful.


Jonathan Perks
AEA
2nd June 2011

18/04/11 Witney Vikings win the U15s cup.

Witney Vikings Youth Football Club won the Under 15s cup at the start of this month.  It was a bit of a bitter / sweet day as one of the players in the team broke his arm during the game.  He'd broken the other arm playing football only a few months earlier.

Aurora have sponsored the team for three years now and wish them continued success in the future with fewer injuries.