The 14th annual Risk and Safety Forum took place in Birmingham on the 20th and 21st of September 2023.
For more information: forum@crarisk.com
The two-day event, which was a highlight of the industry calendar for risk and safety practitioners, has been held at the Grand Hotel, Birmingham. Delegates did benefit from a rich programme of training and networking opportunities attended by senior risk, safety, security, regulation, and human factors experts operating in the nuclear, transportation and other safety critical industries.
The theme of the 14th annual CRA Risk & Safety Forum was: Safety Leadership – Increasing the Pool of Professionals in Safety Critical Industry
Technical Lead - Nuclear Waste and Decommissioning
CRA
Heather joined CRA in 2021 after spending 18 years supporting CONSORT, Imperial College London’s 100kW research reactor. She was responsible for nuclear decommissioning operations and compliance with site license conditions, safety, safeguards, and environmental regulations on the CONSORT site. She was involved in the defueling and a range of decommissioning projects to dismantle and dispose of intermediate and low-level waste from the reactor facility. Her involvement in these projects has been at all stages from initial planning, through option studies, safety case development, equipment specification and procurement, commissioning, training, preparation of safety documentation, supervision of operations and radioactive material transport for waste. In the latter stages of decommissioning, Heather’s role involved safety oversight of contractors brought in to carry out the final decommissioning and dismantling of the site.
Principal Consultant
CRA
Michael joined Corporate Risk Associates Limited in August 2008. Michael is a chartered engineer with over 13 years of experience in safety and risk consulting to a range of industries. Recently, Michael has been heavily involved in providing PSA support to the EDF NNB GenCo HPC project; this support has included an emphasis on guiding the development of the hazards PSA for HPC both in the design and operational versions of the master PSA model.
Head of Waste
Westinghouse Electric Company
Jane has over 25 years’ experience in waste characterisation and management including radiochemistry. She is a Chartered Chemist with PhD in radiochemistry from the University of Southampton, UKAS Technical assessor for ISO 17025 and Co-chair of the NNUF-EXACT. She has extensive technical expertise including analysis of provenance data, development of sampling and analysis strategies, radiological and non-radiological characterisation, data interpretation, validation and verification of waste stream inventories and waste routing. Her experience also includes assessing new treatment technologies leading projects across the UK nuclear estate and is the Technical Lead for the Springfields Melter for Advanced Recycling and Treatment (SMART) a key component in the development of Westinghouse’ Waste Management capability.
Managing Director
Canary Design Ltd.
John is a chartered ergonomist with expertise in participatory ergonomics methods, developed during his industrial placement at DERA's Centre for Human Sciences in 1998. He utilized Digital Human Modelling JACK v1.0 and biomechanics knowledge under Dr. Mike Llewellyn's guidance. Throughout his career, John applied these techniques to enhance design projects and expert witness cases. John collaborated with Prof. Neil Mansfield on RNLI AWB Trent Class wheelhouse ergonomics, introducing eye-tracking trials. He integrated measurement indices into the Digital Human Modelling environment and replicated the method for other RNLI AWBs. He also explored control room design with automation products, employing movicon next gen software. Since 2008, John has worked in the nuclear industry, contributing to diverse projects and collaborating with various specialists.
John is currently supporting a nuclear defence program by providing digital and real-world participatory approaches for all stakeholders.
Digital Engineering Delivery Lead, Senior Data Scientist
Assystem
Dr. ELHADJI holds a PhD in data science from the University of Technology of Troyes in France, where her research focused on developing new methodologies for predictive modeling and pattern recognition. Her academic background has given her a deep understanding of statistical analysis, machine learning algorithms and data visualization techniques.
As a Data Science Expert and Digital Engineering Delivery Lead for Assystem, Dr ELHADJI's innovative mindset has led her to develop cutting-edge data solutions that address real-world challenges. Her work has been instrumental in optimizing the tedious tasks of engineers in the nuclear sector with the use of AI for process automation and improving results through data-driven insights.
Head of Operational Support (UK)
X-Energy
Stephen Coates has over 30 years of experience in the civil nuclear industry in both the UK and internationally. He has experience on operational utilities and new build projects. He has a strong operations back ground and has held senior positions on NPP leadership team including Operations Manager and Plant Manager at Dungeness NPP in the UK. Prior to joining X energy he worked in the UAE as Nuclear Oversight Director at the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant at which he was part of the leadership team that took the first reactor in the Arab world through the final stages of construction and commissioning and into commercial operation.
Probabilistic Safety Analysis Engineer
EDF Energy
Alefiyah started her career at EDF Energy in 2015 at Torness power station and quickly found her way to the HPC Probabilistic Safety Analysis team. She has recently returned from a nearly 4-year secondment in Lyon at EDF’s Direction Technique working on a first of a kind seismic PSA for a new nuclear build power plant.
Postgraduate Researcher
The University of Manchester
Nour is a Postgraduate Researcher in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Civil Engineering at the University of Manchester. She is also part of the Fusion Centre for Doctoral Training, specialising in nuclear materials for fusion applications. Nour holds a degree in Nuclear Sciences and Materials.
Before her PhD, Nour worked at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, she gained invaluable experience. In her role within the Nuclear Energy Department, she actively contributed to advancing the agency's mission of ensuring safe and peaceful use of nuclear energy. Her involvement in diverse projects, including decommissioning, disused sealed radioactive sources, and fusion, enriched her perspective across various aspects of nuclear sciences.
Chief Technology Officer
Assystem
Robert Plana has been Professor at Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse and at the Institut Universitaire de France in the field of Internet of Things Technologies. He has occupied numerous top management positions at CNRS, National Research Agency and Ministry of higher education and research. In the private sector, he has been working with a startup (SiGe Microsystems) as Senior Technology Leader, with Alstom as Open Innovation Director and with GE as the CTO and Ecosystem Director of the GE Digital Services for Europe. He is now the Chief Technology Officer of Assystem Group in charge of the Innovation strategy and leading the program “Engineering Powered by digital services”. He is pioneering the convergence between Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Advanced System Engineering for mission critical Infrastructures.
Senior Consultant
RELSAFE PRA Consulting
Vignesh is a Senior Consultant at RELSAFE PRA Consulting. He is an Electronics & Communications engineer with one year of diploma in Nuclear Engineering from NEA, India. He has over 10 years of experience in Level 1 and Level 1+ Probabilistic Safety Assessments as well as Deterministic Hazards Safety Studies for Swiss, Belgian and French NPPs. He also briefly worked on safety case and optioneering studies for UK AGRs. Vignesh is a lead coordinator for projects related to internal hazards and HRA and is an advanced user of RiskSpectrum® PSA and fire modelling tools such as FDTs, CFAST and FDS. He supports the company’s training academy activities, business diversification initiatives and ISO internal audits. Vignesh is also one of the trainers for internal fire PSA, HRA and Seismic PSA topics.
Managing Director
RELSAFE PRA Consulting
Mrs. Janaki Devi Kompella is the CEO and Original founder of RELSAFE PRA Consulting (which is now a part of the Assystem Group).
Devi is a PSA (Probabilistic Safety Assessment) specialist with wide ranging international experience and recognition in the nuclear industry in Europe & Asia. She led technical execution and management of diverse large volume safety projects (Full scope Integrated Level 1 and 2 PRA with Internal Events and various Hazards, SSC Safety Classification, Deterministic Safety Analyses etc.,) for utilities/regulators/technical support organizations in Switzerland, France, and Belgium. Her team has also provided technical advisory/training to Japanese and Korean EPCs and utilities in Argentina and Sweden.
GDA & Safety Case Project Manager
Newcleo Ltd
Sophie is the Project Manager for Generic Design Assessment and Safety Case activities for Newcleo’s LFR-200 reactor deployment in the UK. Prior to joining Newcleo in May 2023, Sophie spent 9 years with Atkins. She began her career supporting safety case projects across UK clients in the new build and fuel cycle markets before moving to the UAE to support the Barakah programme in various project engineering, project management, and framework management roles. Sophie returned to the UK in 2021, into a role as programme manager for the HPC safety case. Sophie has a master’s degree in physics from the University of Manchester.
Nuclear Safety Inspector – Human Factors
Office for Nuclear Regulation
Helen is a chartered ergonomist with 25 years’ Human Factors experience across a variety of safety case domains including nuclear, maritime, offshore, petrochemical/process, air traffic control, rail, and defence. What started as a keen interest in human error and accident causation soon led to wider experience in risk, management systems and organisational change. Whilst working for DNV, she worked on many international projects and sat on the INTERTANKO Human Element in Shipping committee. In 2009, she moved into the nuclear sector acting as Human Factors Lead on a large nuclear new-build project for several years before supporting various decommissioning projects. She joined ONR in January 2017 and, following a stint on the Sellafield division, is currently assigned to New Reactors, working as lead HF specialist inspector on Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C.
Human Factors Consultant
Corporate Risk Associates (CRA)
Hannah joined CRA in October 2020. She has a broad defence and nuclear background, having undertaken work for clients such as the Royal Navy, Sellafield Ltd, Rolls-Royce and the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE).
Hannah has comprehensive technical experience in training needs analysis, task and error analysis, and Human Reliability Assessment (HRA).
Hannah has recently been involved in client Periodic Safety Reviews and preparation for Pre-Operational Safety Report submissions, providing detailed HF support and safety substantiation to a range of projects in support of safety case development and assurance activities.
Chief Human Factors Consultant
Corporate Risk Associates (CRA)
Adrian is a Fellow of the CIEHF, with over 25 years’ experience providing Ergonomics and Human Factors advice to government and industry. His career started in the defence domain, supporting several land and communications capability programmes through experimental trails and operational analysis. Following several years of working in the rail domain, supporting the development of metro rail infrastructure and operations, Adrian provided long-term support to a large nuclear new-build project and is currently supporting defence and civil nuclear projects for a variety of licensees. Adrian is passionate about promoting the early integration of Ergonomics and Human Factors support to projects, recognising from experience how poor early adoption can have a significant impact on capability implementation and through-life operation.
Safety Case Graduate
Sellafield Ltd.
Holleigh is undergoing training to become a Criticality Safety Assessor at Sellafield Ltd. Their journey started in the Special Nuclear Materials value stream, creating safety assessments for legacy reprocessing facilities and maintaining the UK's uranium and plutonium stores. They later worked in the Effluent Management Group, reviewing the criticality safety case for the Enhanced Actinide Removal Plant and assessing its validity for post-MOP operations. Currently, they are completing their final placement as a Process Engineer at Sellafield's Plant Facing Design Office. After finishing the grad scheme, they will join Urenco UK as a Trainee Criticality Safety Assessor, aiming to become a SQEP Criticality Safety Assessor and achieve chartership through IChemE. Holleigh is enthusiastic about process safety and renewable energy and looks forward to what future holds.
Environment, Safety & Security Director (Sellafield Ltd.)
Chairman (Safety Director's Forum)
Mark Neate joined Sellafield Ltd in February 2012. He enjoyed a diverse military career, from Parachute School to a master’s degree in Military Strategy, from the hills of Forkhill to the concrete of Baghdad.
He has spent considerable time abroad as a specialist adviser; most recently working with the US Army for senior officers such as General Petraeous. As a strategist he was intimately involved in Iraqi operational planning and subsequently the deployment to Helmand Province. He was lead operational staff officer for the defence contribution to ‘Global Counter Terrorism’. He has enjoyed the great privilege of commanding soldiers at a variety of different levels.
He has held previous roles within Sellafield Ltd, including the Director of Security and Resilience.
Post-doctoral research fellow
University of Manchester
Edmund recently completed a PhD at the University of Manchester, involving research into the challenges involved attempting to rapidly construct nuclear power generating capacity to allow an accelerated and comprehensive decarbonisation of the UK energy system. This included investigation of potential methods to mitigate the current shortage of UK nuclear skills, including in the regulatory and safety management space.
Head of the Centre for Intelligent Infrastructure
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
Edoardo Patelli is a Professor in Risk and Uncertainty and Head of the Centre for Intelligent Infrastructure at the University of Strathclyde. Formerly, he held significant roles at the University of Liverpool, including Deputy Director of the Institute for Risk and Uncertainty and Co-Director of the Centre for Doctoral Training in "Risk and Uncertainty".
Prof. Patelli serves as vice-Chair of European Safety and Reliability Association (ESRA), member of the Board Committee of the International Joint Research Centre for Resilient Infrastructure (ICRI), Tongji University, China and he also member of the Nuclear Innovation and Research Advisory Board (NIRAB) to provides independent, expert advice to the UK Government.
His research spans over 270 peer-reviewed publications in leading international journals and 6 book chapters. Prof. Patelli has supervised over 30 PhD students in collaboration with esteemed academic and industrial partners. He serves as an Associate Editor for ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty and has guest-edited for reputable journals like International Journal of Reliability and Safety and Structural Safety.
Professor (PhD)
University of Aberdeen
Dr Henry Tan applies digital twin technology as a valuable tool for improving safety and reducing environmental risk. As a PI, he leads two PhD research projects at the University of Aberdeen, "Safety and risk assessment of offshore wind turbines: the human factor perspective" and "Safety in Green Hydrogen Production and Storage".
As the PI, he won a Royal Academy of Engineering project on human factors engineering. As the Co-I, Henry led research on multidisciplinary safety within the Lloyd's Register Foundation Centre for Safety and Reliability Engineering. He is a Chair Professor at the Institute of Technological Sciences, Wuhan University, and was a Guest Professor at the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Zhejiang University.
Henry was a Research Scientist at the Center for Simulation of Advanced Rockets, the US Department of Energy's Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI), a ten-year programme to research high-performance computing; the hierarchical digital method developed was used in the accident diagnosis of the space shuttle's reusable solid rocket motor in NASA, where the idea of digital twin originated.
Chief Executive and Chief Nuclear Inspector
Office for Nuclear Regulation
Mark was appointed Chief Executive and Chief Nuclear Inspector of the United Kingdom’s Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) on 1 June 2021 having been ONR’s Chief Nuclear Inspector since 2017.
He is an Executive Board member of the ONR and is the Regulatory Head of the organisation, providing independent, authoritative, expert advice on nuclear safety, security and safeguards to the ONR Board, Ministers and Parliament.
During the last 21 years he has successfully led ONR’s regulation across various sectors of the nuclear industry, securing improvements in safety and security performance.
Mark has 35 years’ experience of the UK’s civil and defence nuclear industry, combined with extensive international experience, having undertaken various senior roles within the international regulatory community. He provides authoritative leadership and advice on nuclear safety and its regulation.
Mark is a Chartered Fellow of the UK’s Nuclear Institute and has an honours degree in Mechanical Engineering.
Junior Consultant
Corporate Risk Associates (CRA)
Kate joined Corporate Risk Associates Limited in February 2023 after completing a PhD in Nuclear Fission at the Next Generation Nuclear Doctoral Training Centre at the University of Manchester. Her PhD was in the fabrication, characterisation, and modelling of micro-electromechanical systems. Whilst completing her PhD, Kate completed the Safety Case Development Module of the NTEC course at the University of Manchester. The assessment for this course was to build a fault schedule, PSA and ALARP evaluation of a Resin storage facility. During the first year of her PhD, she received training on a wide range of nuclear topics including reactor physics, radioactive contamination, radiation damage and nuclear risk. Kate has an interest in many aspects of nuclear including Fusion (her masters project was in Plasma physics), modelling and digitalisation.
Operations Manager
Corporate Risk Associates (CRA)
Hannah joined Corporate Risk Associates(CRA) in March 2023 as Operations Manager. Her background was originally Nuclear Engineering and Project Management after completing her Nuclear Science and Technology Master’s degree in 2011. Hannah’s specialism is Commercial and Operations leadership, having spent 7 years out of the Nuclear Industry in a manufacturing SME and a start-up business. She is a chartered Mechanical Engineer and completed an MBA with Durham University in 2022. Hannah is passionate about gender balance in the Nuclear sector and broader STEM industries and she’ll be taking part in the Nuclear Institute’s YGN Speaking Competition final at Nuclear week in Parliament in September on this subject.
Safety Case Manager
Babcock International
Paul has wide background encompassing infrastructure design, engineering, commissioning, operations and safety arenas. Specific work carried out includes nuclear engineering, nuclear safety cases, systems thinking, conventional safety, structural integrity and failure analysis, infrastructure robustness, design basis and beyond design basis conditions, hazard-shock analysis, climate change infrastructure impact, response and recovery resilience, crisis management, severe accidents, accident and emergency coping strategies, nuclear facilities and nuclear licensed sites, fixed and mobile reactors, nuclear crane designs and commissioning, post-severe accident decommissioning, fuel processing and enrichment facilities. Present role is the Babcock 10 Dock A-Class Safety Case and IC Manager, Devonport Royal Dockyard.
Head of Nuclear
Abbott Risk Consulting
Jon has over thirty years’ experience working in the nuclear sector, as a mechanical engineer and safety case practitioner. IJon is a keen supporter of the SME agenda and has spoken on the topic at various NIA events.
Jon is a highly experienced professional interview chair for the IMechE, is a professional adviser in respect of Fellowship applications, and has mentored numerous individuals both within and outside his organisation to achieve Chartership. Jon is passionate about the development of younger engineers and scientists, and is particularly proud of the support and sponsorship that he has provided to the YGN over many years, culminating in him winning the YGN Prize for outstanding contribution in 2017.
Safety Research Manager,NM Safety, EUROCONTROL Experimental Centre
Dr. Barry Kirwan started his career in Human Factors in the nuclear, oil and gas, and maritime sectors. After running a team of Human Factors professionals in British Nuclear Fuels, he lectured at Birmingham University for five years before becoming Head of Human Factors at NATS, UK. Following two tragic aviation disasters in Europe, he initiated and ran the European Safety Culture Programme for a decade, which still involves more than thirty countries. Recently he has worked on European research programmes including OPTICS, Future Sky Safety, and SAFEMODE, spreading Human Factors and the safety culture approach to airlines, airframe manufacturers and airports and, more recently, the maritime domain. He is currently working on the EU Horizon Europe-funded project HAIKU, which focuses on the use of artificial intelligence in aviation.
OBE FREng Chief Science and Technology Officer, National Nuclear Laboratory Limited
Fiona has dedicated 30 years to the nuclear sector with extensive strategic and operational experience. She is a chartered chemist and engineer with a PhD in chemistry from University of Strathclyde, Glasgow and a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society of Chemistry and of the UK Nuclear Institute. She has an MBA from Manchester Business School.
Fiona has long advocated widening participation in science and engineering and champions our sector-leading approach to diversity and inclusion.
She was awarded an OBE in 2017 and the French Légion d’Honneur in 2020.
Head of Safety Case, PhD
MoltexFLEX
Andrew is MoltexFLEX lead for Safety, Environment and Security Case development for the FLEX reactor - an Advanced Modular Molten Salt Reactor (AMR) design based on simple engineering and inherent safety. He has over 16 years of Nuclear Safety Case experience, including safety leadership roles in UK GDA projects and as a consultant leading technical teams for a range of UK nuclear sites. Andrew has extensive experience of regulatory interface activities and how to understand and present justifications to meet regulatory expectations.
