AMBER 6.5 was released in November 2020, and an additional update, AMBER 6.5.1, has also now been released to existing customers with current software maintenance agreements.

AMBER 6.5 introduced enhancements to the spatial modelling capabilities, including:

• play through, and export, of videos in the 3D View;
• improved labelling of diagrams in the 3D View; and
• improvements to the GUI when using imported parameters.

AMBER 6.5.1 introduces the option for remote licencing alongside the current local licencing system, including the ability to run AMBER via a Remote Desktop (RDP) connection. Please contact us if you require further details of this remote licencing.

In addition to the features listed above, AMBER 6.5 and 6.5.1 include other minor feature updates and various bug fixes. For further details, see the AMBER 6.5 Release Note and AMBER 6.5.1 Release Note.

If you have a valid software maintenance agreement, please download AMBER 6.5.1. If not, you can download the AMBER 6.5.1 Demo.

If you would like to renew your maintenance agreement or purchase AMBER, please contact us.

Quintessa has released a complete set of video tutorials for AMBER. These tutorial videos are available on our website or Quintessa's YouTube channel.

The tutorial videos demonstrate the implementation of a conceptual model of the leaching of radioactive contaminants from a near-surface repository into an aquifer, followed by transport towards a downstream well used as a source of drinking water and irrigation.

For further details, read the full news story.

AMBER is currently only available as a 32-bit application, in order to support older computers that are running 32-bit versions of Windows. However, for some large case files the 2GB memory limit of a 32-bit application may be exceeded. To avoid this, we would like to move to providing a 64-bit version of AMBER in future. If you still require support for 32-bit systems, please contact the AMBER team.

Over a two week period in March and April 2021, Quintessa provided a web-hosted training course on safety assessment and the application of the AMBER compartment modelling tool to seven participants from the Bulgarian State Enterprise Radioactive Waste (SERAW).

The course focused on the use of the software for post-closure ‘total system’ safety assessment and was structured around international guidance on safety assessment and its contribution to the wider safety case. The training included examples of AMBER’s application to near-surface disposal, site remediation, disposal of wastes containing naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) and the borehole disposal of disused sealed radioactive sources.

The following publications from 2020 and 2021 cite the use of AMBER.

• Essel P, Otoo D, Amo-Boaten M and Akitit TT (2021). Transport And Fate Of Radionuclides From A Hypothetical Repository Of Radioactive Waste In The Accra Plains. International Journal of Scientific and Technology Research, 10(2), 360-371.
• Geier J, Metcalfe R, Wilson J, Newson RK, Towler GH, Limer L, Walke RC and Penfold JSS (2021). 2021:13 SSM’s external experts’ review of SKB’s safety evaluation SE-SFL.
• IAEA (2020). Application of the Graded Approach to Post-closure Safety Assessment for the Disposal of Disused Sealed Radioactive Sources in Boreholes. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Report IAEA-TECDOC-1928, IAEA, Vienna, Austria.
• Klos R and Thorne M (2020). Use of interaction matrices to formalise the development of conceptual models of contaminant transport in the biosphere and the translation of those conceptual models into mathematical models. Journal of Radiological Protection, 40(1), 40-67.

Quintessa is fully committed to the long-term development and support of AMBER, with on-going development and annual software updates. Developments planned for the future include improvements to the user interface and the ability to add quality assurance checks and comments to case files.

We very much welcome feedback about AMBER, including ideas and suggestions for further developments that would help maintain its utility and applicability to a wide range of contaminant transport and risk assessment situations. Please contact the AMBER team with any development suggestions or requests.

Quintessa continues to support AMBER, both through directed support to licence holders and by applying the software to safety and performance assessment studies of contaminants in the environment. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions about AMBER, its application and/or about our associated support and training programme.