Blog

The Aquila team has recently visited Owlesbury Primary School to talk to the children about STEM, presenting to the entire school from Year R up to and including Year 6.

The educational visit is just one initiative driven by the STEM group at Aquila, having already held a week of work experience earlier in the year.

Aquila’s aim was to explain about STEM; putting the topics into practical terms allowing the pupils to engage with, and most importantly, get them excited about STEM subjects. One of the best ways to demonstrate the value of STEM subjects is to draw on the enthusiasm and expertise of people who use STEM every day in their work and so Aquila’s three enthusiastic team members explained a bit more about how STEM is applied in their roles, from engineering and project management, to the the commercial team.

Using year group-specific tasks, and following the presentation, the pupils spent the afternoon in small teams building towers out of materials Aquila had brought along.

Catriona Simpson, Bid Manager, Aquila Nuclear Engineering, said:

“We wanted to see how creative the pupils could be; the brief for each group was slightly different but all had a clear objective. We also added an element of competition to the task for a little extra motivation.

The younger pupils were tasked with making a tower out of spaghetti and plasticine; their objective was to make the tallest tower in their group. The remaining pupils, from Year 3 upwards, had different materials and had the objective of making the tallest tower. However, they were also tasked with ensuring their structure was strong enough to support the weight of an item, and we asked them to think about how the structure would hold the item, for example a hook or platform.

We were so impressed with all the pupils and the energy and creativity they displayed. They all showed great resilience, as in many cases their first idea didn’t work the way they imagined so they needed to change their designs.  And, so importantly, they all worked together in their teams with everyone having an important role and sharing their ideas.”

The afternoon was certainly enjoyed by the Aquila team, the pupils and the teachers alike, and Aquila hopes to have inspired the pupils to keep working on their STEM subjects.

Aquila Nuclear Engineering has been selected by the Sellafield Programme and Project Partners (PPP) to support the design and build of replacement nuclear laboratories.

Under an eight-year framework contract with an estimated value of £9 million, Aquila and its sub-contractor Jacobs will collaboratively modify and integrate complex, high-precision analytical equipment into gloveboxes and shielded hot cells as part of the Replacement Analytical Project (RAP).

Working together, they will combine Aquila’s extensive experience of designing, modifying and installing shielded equipment for the nuclear industry with Jacobs’ fundamental knowledge and operational experience of sensors and instrumentation for high-precision chemical and radiochemical analysis.

“We are delighted to have won this long term contract which not only allows us to provide high level engineering skills from the Aquila pool but also creates a platform to invest in our younger engineers joining the business and establish a presence in West Cumbria,” said Dave Barker, CEO of Aquila Nuclear Engineering.

“This appointment gives us the opportunity to combine complementary skills in chemistry, advanced instrumentation, engineering and nuclear shielding to deliver a world-class analytical solution which will play a vital role in Sellafield Ltd’s mission to create a clean and safe environment for future generations,” said Greg Willetts, Vice President for Technology and Cyber Solutions, Jacobs Critical Mission Solutions International.

RAP is one of several major projects which are considered essential for the environmental clean-up of Sellafield, the most complex nuclear site in the UK. It involves works to modify the on-site National Nuclear Laboratory Central Laboratory facility to incorporate new analytical testing to support site operational missions over the next 30 years by analysing low, medium and high active material on behalf of 200 internal customers.

The project is being delivered by PPP, which was set up by Sellafield Ltd to deliver major projects and site wide project delivery improvements over the next 20 years.

We are pleased to announce the appointment of John Adams to the Board of Directors of Aquila Nuclear Engineering Ltd.

John will take the position of Engineering and Projects Director, reporting to Dave Barker, from the 1st August 2020.

John started at Aquila in May 2012. He has been pivotal in developing the performance and culture of the delivery team, which is recognised in the industry as top class.

We are sure you will all applaud and support John in his new role.