MySRP
Greg Antill, Health Physics Business Manager.
- Field Services –NUVIA’s Health Physics business is the largest commercial provider of the full range of radiation protection services in the UK. We also offer decommissioning and site services, and land remediation and characterisation.
- Programmes and EPC – we deliver integrated services and turnkey solutions across the full project lifecycle.
- Technical Services and Consulting – we support our clients working in nuclear and other highly regulated environments, in various specialist areas.
- Products and Innovation – NUVIA has developed some of the most innovative instrumentation, characterisation, and Health Physics products in the industry.
NuVISION.
It's a compact, portable, spectrometric gamma camera, based on CZT semiconducting detectors and coded aperture and Compton imaging capabilities. The aim is to provide end-users with a completely portable and sensitive system allowing them to not only detect but also measure a dose rate in H*(10), localise the source and identify the radioisotope. Using excellent spectrometric ability on a wide energy range, the processing speed allows the camera to perform real-time imaging and observe mobile sources. The key benefits of NuVISION include:
- A user-friendly, portable device
- A fully independent and autonomous product – no cable is needed
- Real-time imaging
- A product that is specially designed to work in nuclear plants and nuclear cycle facilities
- The ability to combine sharp image quality and 360° field of view
- H*(10) dose rate estimation
- Capability to identify radiation energies
The NuVISION compact portable spectrometric gamma camera.
NUVIA is an international group with operations in the UK, Europe, North America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. In the UK, we have three main offices, in Risley, Harwell and Thurso. We also have a number of smaller site offices at multiple nuclear sites across the UK looking after our clients, providing the support that they require.
Well, NUVIA itself employs 750 people in the UK and 3,000 around the world, but it's part of VINCI, which employs 200,000 worldwide. NUVIA's Health Physics business employs 225 people in the UK.
As well as site support services, we manufacture radiation protection instrumentation, through our NUVIATech Instruments brand, which employs 100 people globally, and has a portfolio of ~250 products, with more being brought to market soon.
Innovative, agile and responsible.
One of our earliest and most successful branded products is the ModuCon™ Modular Containment System which provides a solution to the problems associated with temporary containment, such as integrity and secondary waste arisings. The modular concept offers a versatile, robust containment with few technical or safety limitations. Originally developed at the Winfrith Technology Centre, ModuCon™ has been employed for over 20 years in maintenance and decommissioning operations involving plutonium and other radioactive/toxic materials.
ModuCon in use.
Our vision is to ‘build a better future through the delivery of innovative leading-edge solutions to deal with the UK’s nuclear legacy, support the UK’s critical nuclear infrastructure and enable a clean and sustainable energy mix’.
The opportunity to meet people and learn! It’s a great chance to network with other professionals in the industry, including colleagues, clients, competitors, researchers/academics and suppliers. You can see what's going on in the sector, and its latest innovations. It’s also a good excuse to let your hair down and have a bit of fun!
At conferences, our most popular giveaways include mints, lip balms, water bottles and memory/USB sticks.
Lorna Galbraith and Toby Webber. Lorna is RPA Team Leader, she currently manages NUVIA’s RPA/RWA team and the company’s Software and Database team. She is responsible for all aspects of this part of the business, including management of personnel based across the UK and a large and a very diverse portfolio of clients and projects. Toby is our dedicated Sales Manager, leading on all sales activity for NUVIATech Instruments products in the UK.
The NUVIA stand at SRP's Annual Conference in Southport.
This has to be the 50th Anniversary SRP Conference held in Harrogate in 2013.
It was an honour and a privilege to be part of the celebration marking the Society’s 50th year. There was a good party atmosphere, and it was a good opportunity to celebrate and recognise the strength, depth and breadth of the Society’s achievements.
We support a wide range of charities and other voluntary sector and community organisations through our membership of the VINCI UK Foundation. Since 2017, £967k of funding has been secured through the VINCI UK Foundation for 130 projects across the UK. We support projects that promote social cohesion and fight exclusion.
For some years now, we have organised charity bike rides between our main offices. The journey starts in Winfrith and participants cycle to Risley via our Harwell office. The event really helps strengthen and build relationships between everyone who organises, supports and participates in it, while helping to raise money for charity.
The team at the start of their 286 mile ride, in 2017.
Yes, the rapid introduction of home and flexible working arrangements and a reduction in personal and business travel, which has resulted in significant environmental benefits. There was a 20-25% reduction in CO2 emissions in some countries at the early stages of the pandemic. These cultural changes and subsequent benefits can be sustained for the longer-term and help achieve the UK’s Net Zero by 2050 targets.
Employees have also learned to communicate digitally in new ways, which has greatly improved collaboration and efficiency. We will continue to use collaborative platforms, document sharing and video conferencing, to benefit our business and the wider world.
NUVIA has always been a strong supporter of SRP, as many of us are members and have been involved in committees and attending events. Our Health Physics and Radiation Protection businesses are consultancy-based, and affiliation helps to raise and maintain our profile within the society and provide a direct avenue to promote our services.
A few years ago, I received a fluorescent green mankini (made famous by Borat), as part of a secret-santa at Dounreay. Modelling it on top of trousers and a shirt was bad enough...it hasn't seen the light of day since!
Well, I never realised that rain could go uphill, or hit the back windscreen of your car whilst you were driving (forward) at 60 mph, until I spent some time working at Dounreay. The weather up there is legendary!
NUVIA’S nuclear heritage spans over 70 years. Our roots can be traced back to the formation of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment (AERE), founded by John Cockroft in 1946.
This is, without doubt, the people. Our staff have an embedded culture and commitment to health and wellbeing and in-depth expertise and capability across all aspects of the nuclear life-cycle.
Why would anyone buy a Velosolex?
There is something therapeutic about wafting along on a sunny day at 18 mph on a 1965 French bicycle fitted with a little 2-stroke motor mounted over the front wheel, while its peashooter exhaust spits vast amounts of unburnt oil all over your shoes. Of course, it’s a little less therapeutic when you’re overtaken by somebody who is simply pedalling their bike, or when you discover that its default throttle position is wide open, but given it’s puny 0.8hp output it’s not too disconcerting. If you don’t know what a Velosolex is, watch this.
PS: It’s not me on the video!
If you would like to be featured in our weekly Affiliated Organisation Interview column (or would like to recommend someone) please email sara.harrington@srp-uk.org