Adelard deliver a range of services to the nuclear licensees and regulators in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world.
Our ASCE product – the Adelard Assurance and Safety Case Environment underpins our clients’ innovation and safety case development. We evaluate a range of nuclear C&I systems and architectures, which include assessments against internal, national and international standards, and evaluation of system architectures and behaviour (e.g., through review of design, code analysis or testing). In particular, we are experts on:
Assessment of PLC-based and bespoke systems
We assess PLC-based systems and bespoke platforms of different classes, including static analysis of the operating system, analysis of the application or assessment against relevant standards.
Assessment of smart devices
We are the leading independent assessor of smart devices performing Emphasis assessments and a range of static and dynamic assessment techniques. We develop and maintain the Emphasis tool.
Assessment of FPGA-based systems
We perform assessments of FPGA-based systems for the nuclear industry with a range of reliability targets.
Assessment of PC-based systems
We are the authors of the approach taken by the UK nuclear industry on the assessment and justification of PC-based systems, and regularly perform such assessments.
Standards development
Adelard played an instrumental role in the original development of IEC 61508. We have helped licensees and regulators develop guidance documents aligned with international standards and modern safety case practices. Recent developments have included comprehensive guidance on modification and replacement of I&C systems, smart instrument assessment guidance and guidance on the use of FPGAs in nuclear facilities.
Safety justification development and support
Adelard has developed numerous safety cases, mainly for software-based systems. We are the authors of the Claims, Arguments, Evidence (CAE) approach to safety cases, which is now widely used in the nuclear industry and it is the basis for the Generic Design Assessment currently being undertaken for the new build in the UK.
Research
We have undertaken many research projects for the UK nuclear industry as well as working within the Finnish Safir programme and EU Euratom projects. We have published a range of papers on software and system assessment, diversity, testing, and software reliability modelling. Read our research papers.
We deploy many of our capabilities (Analysis of Software capability, Software Development capability, Hazard Analysis capability, Human Factors capability) to help solve nuclear industry problems including hazard analysis (including Hazops, FMEDA and FMEA), analysis of software and dynamic analyses.
To discuss how Adelard can assist you with your projects, please get in touch.