Vysus Group has been supporting the prestigious European Spallation Source (ESS) – one of the largest science infrastructure projects being built in Europe today – since 2011, even before the construction of the facility started in 2014.
Designed to build and operate the world’s most powerful neutron source accelerator (5 MW), ESS will enable scientific breakthroughs in research related to materials, energy, health, and the environment, addressing some of the most important societal challenges of our time. The facility, with 15 experimental stations, will be in full operation and open for users in late 2027. It is expected that more than 800 experiments will be conducted at ESS per year.
The scopes delivered by Vysus Group’s Nuclear team have involved conducting various hazard, risk and safety analysis assignments on the accelerator, instruments, active cell, radioactive waste treatment facility and target station, including consequence analysis, radiation protection, shielding calculations and seismic hazard analysis. We have been involved in authoring and reviewing the Preliminary Safety Analysis Report (PSAR) as well as supporting ESS in various staged construction, installation, and trial operation license applications to ensure the compliance of Swedish regulations and requirements.
We are leading a consortium of four companies, who together can deliver a broad capability of services to ESS. The consortium has secured two initial scopes of work, to provide technical consultants and services in environment, safety and health and quality management, with the framework running until 2026.
As part of our service delivery, we have developed ESS Doctor, a state-of-the-art tool for demonstrating radiation safety, safety analysis and emergency response. Many of these studies will help with the licence application to the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority to ensure the safety of the public, environment and those working in the facility and granting operating license to the facility.
ESS Doctor has realised significant cost-savings for the project through automating many of the steps involved in making calculations, by using multiple applications. This reduces the large number of manual actions needed and therefore the time taken to obtain the final results. It also reduces the possibility of manual errors and facilitates traceability for ESS.
Five people, including project lead Manorma Kumar, are working for the client almost full-time and we expect to add more resource in coming months.
Principal Consultant, Manorma, said: “We have a great relationship with ESS, as our long-term relationship demonstrates. This is a very prestigious project and I feel privileged to be part of it, as do others in the team. In addition to our agreed scopes of work, we are always very happy to work with the ESS team to find solutions to overcome unexpected challenges to keep the project on track and on time.”
The team has received very positive feedback from ESS, with high ratings for the quality, creativity, professionalism, and effectiveness of its work.
Manorma added: “To hear such positive feedback from the experts working on such a fantastic and prominent project is extremely pleasing. ESS is expected to be in full operation in 2027 and we look forward to continuing to provide support as the project reaches its final goal.”
*Photo courtesy of Perry Nordeng/ESS
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