Interdisciplinary links
Links within University
Some of the NGRG research projects are interdisciplinary, with input coming from both within and outside the School. There is collaboration with the Solids and Structures Research Group, and the Dynamics and Aeroelasticity Research Group in the School of MACE and with the School of Materials and the School of Mathematics.
In 2001, British Nuclear Fuels Nuclear Sciences and Technology Services (BNFL NSTS) announced the creation of a University Research Alliance in Materials Performance at the University of Manchester. The NGRG is closely involved in this. Graphite issues are a significant part of the work of the Alliance. Professor Marsden is an Associate Directors of this Research Alliance. Dr. Alex Fok is actively involved with the research projects.
Professor Marsden also is Academic Director of the Post Graduate Certificate / MSc in Nuclear Engineering which has been introduced at Manchester under the Dalton Project. This qualification is aimed at filling a skill shortage in the Nuclear Industry as identified in the DTI Nuclear Skills Report (December 2002).
External links
An agreement arranged by Professor Jackson has been in place since 2001 between the University of Manchester and the Institute of Thermal Engineering at Tsinghua University in China for collaboration on research in the area of thermal engineering and nuclear technology. This was extended in May 2004 to include the Nuclear Graphite Research Group at Manchester and the Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology in Beijing. China. Postdoctoral researchers and postgraduate students from Tsinghua University are now actively involved on projects with Nuclear Graphite Research Group at the University of Manchester.
A collaborative study of the relationship between strain and the coefficient of thermal expansion in nuclear graphite with Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, has been in progress since September 2004 under the terms of this agreement.
A Royal Society funded a Joint UK/China Project on 'Forced and mixed convective heat transfer to supercritical pressure carbon dioxide' has been in progress since April 2002 with the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Department of Thermal Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. A collaborative agreement for research in the area of nuclear engineering has been in place for several years with the University of Pisa, Italy. An EPSRC interact award for collaboration with the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute on High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor Technology is in the process of being implemented. The delegation from the University of Manchester will visit Japan for exchange meetings in May 2005. A Japanese delegation will visit the School of MACE at Manchester for further exchange meetings later in the year. A similar interaction in the area of nuclear graphite technology is planned with Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute.