Technical and Assurance Services is a specialist technical support organisation, often working in partnership with the public and private sectors. Markets include the nuclear, defence, civil resilience and rail industries, providing independent safety, risk and environmental management, plant performance and integrity, systems engineering and engineering services.
The expertise of staff covers almost every branch of engineering and science applied to complex systems and plant performance and is complemented by skills in human factors, materials testing and systems engineering. Providers must recruit, train, and continuously develop their personnel, to ensure that they are appropriately qualified and experienced and focus on understanding customers' needs and delivering effective solutions.
Nuclear
Example: Serco has had an integral role in the UK civil and defence nuclear industries for the past 50 years.
Serco's Technical and Assurance Services business provides specialist technical support to the UK nuclear industry. It provides expert safety, environmental, risk and asset management advice and operational solutions to many of the UK's civil nuclear sites. For nearly half a century, it has been providing independent specialist nuclear safety advice to the Royal Navy in support of their nuclear submarine fleet.
Since 2000, Serco has been entrusted with the management of the UK Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), which provides the warheads for the UK's independent nuclear deterrent. We do this as part of AWE Management Limited (AWEML), a 25-year joint venture with Lockheed Martin UK and BNFL.
AWE is a complex nuclear facility on a 750 acre site at Aldermaston and an adjacent 225 acres site at Burghfield in Berkshire, and employs nearly 4500 people including scientists, engineers and skilled craftspeople.
Their primary role through AWEML is to provide advice and governance to the management of AWE plc and bring the experience and expertise of the parent companies to bear on AWE's development. Serco have worked together to create a new nuclear programme and project management academy for AWE staff, which is now up and running, with almost a quarter of the staff being trained in the first year.
One of the projects involves a multi-disciplinary team of project managers, commercial experts, scientists, engineers and construction specialists delivering a state-of-the-art laser facility to enable scientists to replicate conditions at the heart of a nuclear reaction. The facility will also be used by civil scientists studying events such as the beginning of the universe.
Civil Nuclear
Technical Assurance services to civil nuclear industry work with suppliers, partners and regulators, specialising in helping clients improve safety, risk, environmental and waste management performance and meet their compliance needs. Technical Assurance support clients from plant design through to construction, operation and then to decommissioning, waste management and clean-up.
The strategic solutions and problem solving capability facilitates improvements in lifetime and output limits imposed by materials, structures, radiological and other issues, principly by implementing best practice computer modelling and decision support tools that improve the company's bottom line and we provide independent and authoritative review.
Engineering expertise can give clients assurance that plants meet safety and performance requirements. Technical Assurance will also investigate problems, and aim to extend asset life and reduce costs of operation, inspection and maintenance. Leading specialists offer world class facilities in materials properties analysis, non-destructive examination and inspection and verification, and have extensive experience in all major engineering disciplines.
Defence Nuclear
Leading providers of independent advice on nuclear safety and nuclear regulation to the MoD (Ministry of Defence), will conduct value-added engineering and scientific research, risk management and delivery of leading-edge protection equipment.
For example, the Royal Navy operates a modern fleet of nuclear powered submarines with an active design and new-build programme. Technical Assurance specialists support the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Programme through the provision of independent nuclear safety advice, assessment, inspection and research.
Independent specialists support the Royal Navy's Defence Nuclear Safety Regulator (DNSR), whose role is to regulate the defence nuclear programmes that are exempt from legislation, providing a comprehensive service to the DNSR on all aspects of nuclear safety regulation for the submarine fleet and for their supporting shore facilities across the UK and abroad.
Source: SERCO (Serco has had an integral role in the UK civil and defence nuclear industries for the past 50 years.)
