Strategy
The group's strategy is to
- Provide services for the UK nuclear industry on consulting and research, particularly but not exclusively, in the area of nuclear graphite behaviour.
- Build on an already internationally recognized research programme.
- Recruit and train significant numbers of postgraduate students and researchers to carry out research in this area.
- Publishing a significant number of quality papers in national and international journals.
- Maintain success in obtaining funding for research from EPSRC and other sources.
- Maintain national and international visibility and recognition by presenting papers at, participating in and also organizing, conferences, workshops, exhibitions, seminars, etc, and by interacting with other universities and research organizations in the UK and overseas.
Key Drivers
- An aging fleet of graphite moderated reactors is currently in service in the UK, with some operating outside the intended design life, and the structural integrity of the graphite playing an important safety function.
- An inadequate database and understanding of the behaviour of graphite in carbon-dioxide cooled reactors.
- The need to plan for succession against the background of an aging number of graphite specialists in the UK and elsewhere.
- An estimated hundred thousand tonnes of irradiated graphite will be produced when all the UK graphite reactors are shutdown. This graphite known to contain isotopes such as 133Ba, 60Co, 152Eu, 154Eu, 3H and long lived isotopes including 241Am, 14C, 137Cs, 36Cl, 90Sr to name but a few.
- Some graphite moderated reactors contain significant amounts of stored energy. There is no international agreement in place as to how best to handle this waste.
- Renewed international interest in (Very) High Temperature
Reactors (HTGRs) designed for operation in remote dry areas and for hydrogen
production.