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Start-up stories: Lynkeos Seeing past the ordinary Margaret Harris catches up with founder Ralf Kaiser and director David Mahon o f Lynkeos Technology, a company that develops muon tomography systems for applications in the nuclear industry and beyond r r i s H a t r e r g a M a 3 8 Muons – elementary particles produced via high-energy cosmic ray showers in the atmosphere – make up much of the cosmic radiation that reaches the Earth’s surface. At sea level, every square metre receives some 100 muons per second, and the muons’ high energies mean that they pass easily through material that would stop some other particles, such as electrons. For physicist Ralf Kaiser, these heavyh i t t i n g p a r t i c l e s s p a r k e d t h e i d e a f o r an i maging innovation. In 2016 he founded Lynkeos Technology, a start-up that develops 3Dimaging systems that use muons to “see” inside complex, shielded structures, such as drums containing nuclear waste. I visited Ralf Kaiser and his colleague David Mahon in their Glasgow lab to learn more about how they set up their company. What was your career like before you started Lynkeos? Ralf Kaiser: I did a PhD in par ticle physics at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, and after that I went to the DESYZeuthen laboratory, near Berlin, Germany, f o r my po s t doc . I ’d be en a po s t doc f o r t h r e e and a half years and was starting to consider a move into something else when I go t an appoin tment as a l ec t u r e r a t t he University of Glasgow, UK. I did basic nuclear physics research for many years, working on accelerator-based experiments and designing and constructing new detectors. Then, in 2010 I got the opportunity to work at the International Atomic Energy Agency Deep view Ral f Kais e r and David Mahon r un a company t hat use s muons t o l ook f o r s t r ay nuclear waste. (IAEA) in Vienna, Austria. It started out as a sabbatical, but I ended up spending seven years there as head of physics, doing things like flying drones over Fukushima, Japan, and getting involved in science politics and representing the IAEA on international councils s u c h a s t h e o n e s t ha t o v e r s e e t h e I T E R f u s i o n reactor and the SESAME synchrotron. This entirely changed my view of what science and t echnolog y can do. At t he IAE A , t he centre of attention is on the impact that science has on our lives, rather than the knowledge you gain from it. I’m now particularly interested in doing things that solve problems and improve people’s lives, and our product at Lynkeos def initely falls into this categor y. How did Lynkeos get star ted? RK: It began in 2009 as a research project with support from the University of Glasgow, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and the National Nuclear Laboratory. Having conducted a feasibility study, and a Mon t e C a r l o s i mu l a t i o n , w h i c h s h owe d t h a t , i n principle, we could do something useful with muon imaging, we got funding to build first a small-scale prototype and then a full-scale one. That was a seven-year, £4.8m research programme funded by the NDA, and at the end of i t we had a sys t em t hat worked on f ul l sized drums of intermediate-level waste. Then, in the aftermath of a reorganization at Sellafield, our funding was cut, and instead of supporting us directly, the NDA offered us the intellectual property rights to those seven years of research if we started a company to commercialize our technology. Starting a company was something we’d planned to do at some point. My colleague Dav i d Mahon, who wo r k e d w i t h me c l o s e l y o n the research project and is now a director at Lynkeos, had received business training as part of a Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) Enterprise Fellowship, and I did a diploma course for non-executive directors run by the Financial Times newspaper. We weren’t completely unprepared, so losing our funding, which at first looked pretty negative, actually turned out well. Can you say more about your training? David Mahon: I did my PhD at Glasgow with Ralf as my supervisor, and I worked on the software side of the project, developing imaging algorithms. During the RSE fellowship, I was placed in a cohort with Physics World  Careers 2020 In association with brightrecruits
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10 other people from different areas – life sciences, biomedical engineering, and so on – who were all trying to commercialize their research. We were put in touch with mentors and met up once a month for a few days’ training in everything from how to set up a company to how to make investment decisions. It was an invaluable year, and it gave me a crash course in business. RK: A t t h e I A E A I l o o k e d i n t o an MBA , b u t a friend who had done this Financial Times diploma sug gested i t might f i t bet ter in my schedule. I learned about company structure, corporate governance, and rules and regulations. I also had to take an undergraduate-level accounting course with a t hr ee - hour wr i t t en e x am – t he f i r s t I ’d done in 20 years. I passed with a B–. Tell me more about your imaging technology RK: We use muons t o image t he content s o f drums containing intermediate-level radioactive waste encapsulated in concrete. Reactor sites such as Sellafield in the UK have large numbers of these “legacy” waste drums that were filled with the cladding of fuel elements maybe 40 or 50 years ago, and sometimes a piece of uranium fuel broke off and ended up in the concrete as well. Uranium oxide takes up about twice the volume of uranium, so when these pieces of fuel corrode, they expand, and pressure builds up inside the drums. Eventually you get enough pressure that the steel drum bulges, and then it’s a question of when, not if, the drum will burst open – particularly if you’re storing them for long periods. If you put one of these drums into our system, we can detect whether it contains a piece of fuel, locate the fuel accurately in t h r e e d i men s i o n s an d i mage i t e v e n t h r o u g h a me t r e o f c o n c r e t e – t o o t h i c k f o r c o n v e n t i o na l imaging tools such as X-rays or ultrasound. When you’re managing waste, it makes a big dif ference if you have the technology to look i n s i d e y o u r s t o r a g e un i t s , and muons a r e a l s o completely natural – you get them free, as part of the background, so there’s no additional radiation. You don’t need a permit to operate our system any more than you need a permit to operate a toaster. What’s nex t for Lynkeos? RK: We installed our first commercial system at Sellafield in 2018, so the next step is to sell our product to nuclear facilities elsewhere in the UK and in other countries such as Germany or France. We’ve also started developing a mobile version for civil engineering applications. DM: At the moment, if you want to use You don’t need a permit to operate our system any more than you need a permit to operate a toaster our system to image an object, that object needs to be small enough to fit inside our detector. But we’d like to extend this by designing a system we can take to the point of inspection, so that we can look inside bridges, buildings and other large-scale structures that can’t be imaged using conventional techniques. What do you know now that you wish you’d known when you star ted? RK: The biggest technical challenge we faced was to get our system certified as a commercial product. We started off developing a research system, so we didn’t necessarily select materials and processes that would be compliant with CE [European health, safety and environmental protection] certification. We should have thought about that earlier. Any other advice for someone who’s thinking of commercializing their research? RK: The first thing to realize is that this is actually a viable option. A lot of things only become viable options when you see them. When I went from the university to the IAEA I saw a whole different aspect of the world, and it was an eye-opener for me. I now look at many things, including some political things, differently – and, I think, with more information and a better understanding. DM: There are organizations out there that are actively trying to help new startups. In addition to the RSE, Scottish Enterprise, Innovate UK and Business Gateway have been great for us in providing support and training. If you have an idea, there are people who will help you turn i t into realit y. Ralf Kaiser i s t he f ounder and chie f executive officer of Lynkeos Technology, and also a physicist at the University of Glasgow, UK, e-mail ralf.kaiser@lynkeos.co.uk. David Mahon i s an ST FC RCUK Innovat ion Fellow at Glasgow and a director at Lynkeos, e-mail david.mahon@glasgow.ac.uk par ticle and nuclear Stay up to date with the latest news and research in particle and nuclear science. physicsworld.com/particle-and-nuclear In association with brightrecruits Physics World  Careers 2020 3 9

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Start-up stories: Lynkeos

Seeing past the ordinary

Margaret Harris catches up with founder Ralf Kaiser and director David Mahon o f Lynkeos Technology, a company that develops muon tomography systems for applications in the nuclear industry and beyond r r i s

H a t r e r g a

M a

3 8

Muons – elementary particles produced via high-energy cosmic ray showers in the atmosphere – make up much of the cosmic radiation that reaches the Earth’s surface. At sea level, every square metre receives some 100 muons per second, and the muons’ high energies mean that they pass easily through material that would stop some other particles, such as electrons.

For physicist Ralf Kaiser, these heavyh i t t i n g p a r t i c l e s s p a r k e d t h e i d e a f o r an i maging innovation. In 2016 he founded Lynkeos Technology, a start-up that develops 3Dimaging systems that use muons to “see” inside complex, shielded structures, such as drums containing nuclear waste. I visited Ralf Kaiser and his colleague David Mahon in their Glasgow lab to learn more about how they set up their company.

What was your career like before you started Lynkeos? Ralf Kaiser: I did a PhD in par ticle physics at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, and after that I went to the DESYZeuthen laboratory, near Berlin, Germany, f o r my po s t doc . I ’d be en a po s t doc f o r t h r e e and a half years and was starting to consider a move into something else when I go t an appoin tment as a l ec t u r e r a t t he University of Glasgow, UK. I did basic nuclear physics research for many years, working on accelerator-based experiments and designing and constructing new detectors.

Then, in 2010 I got the opportunity to work at the International Atomic Energy Agency

Deep view Ral f Kais e r and David Mahon r un a company t hat use s muons t o l ook f o r s t r ay nuclear waste.

(IAEA) in Vienna, Austria. It started out as a sabbatical, but I ended up spending seven years there as head of physics, doing things like flying drones over Fukushima, Japan, and getting involved in science politics and representing the IAEA on international councils s u c h a s t h e o n e s t ha t o v e r s e e t h e I T E R f u s i o n reactor and the SESAME synchrotron. This entirely changed my view of what science and t echnolog y can do. At t he IAE A , t he centre of attention is on the impact that science has on our lives, rather than the knowledge you gain from it. I’m now particularly interested in doing things that solve problems and improve people’s lives, and our product at Lynkeos def initely falls into this categor y.

How did Lynkeos get star ted? RK: It began in 2009 as a research project with support from the University of Glasgow, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and the National Nuclear Laboratory. Having conducted a feasibility study, and a Mon t e C a r l o s i mu l a t i o n , w h i c h s h owe d t h a t , i n principle, we could do something useful with muon imaging, we got funding to build first a small-scale prototype and then a full-scale one. That was a seven-year, £4.8m research programme funded by the NDA, and at the end of i t we had a sys t em t hat worked on f ul l sized drums of intermediate-level waste.

Then, in the aftermath of a reorganization at Sellafield, our funding was cut, and instead of supporting us directly, the NDA offered us the intellectual property rights to those seven years of research if we started a company to commercialize our technology. Starting a company was something we’d planned to do at some point. My colleague Dav i d Mahon, who wo r k e d w i t h me c l o s e l y o n the research project and is now a director at Lynkeos, had received business training as part of a Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) Enterprise Fellowship, and I did a diploma course for non-executive directors run by the Financial Times newspaper. We weren’t completely unprepared, so losing our funding, which at first looked pretty negative, actually turned out well.

Can you say more about your training? David Mahon: I did my PhD at Glasgow with Ralf as my supervisor, and I worked on the software side of the project, developing imaging algorithms. During the RSE fellowship, I was placed in a cohort with

Physics World  Careers 2020

In association with brightrecruits

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