Sharing experiences for safer experiments
24 Jun 2026
Betina Pereira Ferreira and Nathalie de Ruette from the Experiment Safety Review Committee at the ESS recently came to ISIS to meet with teams across ISIS to learn about our experiment safety procedures and how they can be applied at ESS as it moves towards user operations.
The European Spallation Source (ESS) is now moving from the construction phase to operational phase. With commissioning well under way, it is time to focus on the user program and therefore experiment safety.
“We need to be prepared for the usual, but also to the unexpected requests from the users,” explains Betina Pereira Ferreira, who is the Chemical Responsible for ESS. Her tasks include general chemical safety, chemical handling training, advice, inspections and helping to prevent accidents involving chemicals as well as supporting the Occupational Health, Safety and Environment (OHS&E) Group with any other conventional work hazards.
Betina is leading the Experiment Safety Review Committee together with Tom Arnold and Nathalie de Ruette who, in addition to general advice on conventional safety, supports with laser, magnet and pressurised system safety. The group is defining strategies and methods for a successful Experiment Risk Assessment. Betina and Nathalie came to ISIS to help them to visualise the user needs.
Ludmila Mee, together with James Taylor, hosted the visit, which included introductions to the Support Lab Group and Sample Safety Team. They also visited the D-lab, Sample Preparation, Material Characterisation, Bio, Soft Matter, Pressure & Furnace, Cryogenics and Electronic labs, and had a tour of Larmor and IMAT.
We had very valuable discussions about experiment safety involved in many different areas. I certainly hope that this is just the beginning of a beautiful interaction between ISIS and ESS Sample Safety Groups.
Betina Pereira Ferreira
I am very grateful to have been invited to visit such a welcoming and enthusiastic team and hope for more of these excellent collaborative visits to exchange knowledge and good practice both at ISIS and ESS.
Nathalie de Ruette
It was an absolute pleasure to host Betina and Nathalie at ISIS. Very soon they will have exciting but challenging task of overseeing the safety of first experiments at ESS, and I was delighted to be able to support them through knowledge exchange with ISIS teams.
Ludmila Mee
“It was an absolute pleasure to host Betina and Nathalie at ISIS. Very soon they will have exciting but challenging task of overseeing the safety of first experiments at ESS, and I was delighted to be able to support them through knowledge exchange with ISIS teams,” explains Ludmila.
“We had very valuable discussions about experiment safety involved in many different areas like chemicals, electrical, gases, safety training, and many procedures to assure the safety of the experiments, the users and the community,” says Betina. “Everyone was very welcoming and provided us many rich pieces of information. We certainly learned from everyone we met and now have a large variety of information to use and implement in our own safety routines.”
“Ludmila set-up a rich program for us to learn about every aspect of the users’ journey,” adds Nathalie. “We got lots of good tips and inspiration on what works well in their way of working with the users including risk assessments, training and induction and lab set-up for sample preparation.”
“Everyone was also very open about the existing challenges,” she adds. “This will enable us to set the right processes in place at ESS for user safety and start with good foundations; we came home with our heads full of ideas. I am very grateful to have been invited to visit such a welcoming and enthusiastic team and hope for more of these excellent collaborative visits to exchange knowledge and good practice both at ISIS and ESS.”
Ludmila explains; “what makes ISIS work is good working relationships across ISIS teams and everyone’s genuine desire to provide bespoke solutions to challenging experiments – this is what makes ISIS unique, and this is what makes ISIS Sample safety team unique. This is the exact expertise and knowledge that we were sharing with Betina and Nathalie hoping it will help them to set up the right infrastructure for their upcoming experiments at ESS.”
“I certainly hope that this is just the beginning of a beautiful interaction between ISIS and ESS Sample Safety Groups,” adds Betina.
