Academic hub dedicated to plutonium ceramics
The next generation of experts needed to safely and securely manage the UK’s legacy nuclear materials will be trained by The Universities of Manchester and Sheffield, UK.
The new £5mln Plutonium Ceramics Academic Hub is hosted by the Universities to bring together leading expertise on nuclear decommissioning and waste management strategies.
It aims to ensure a pipeline of talent equipped with the skills and knowledge for the safe and secure immobilisation of the UK’s inventory of civil separated plutonium.
Funded by the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), the Plutonium Ceramics Academic Hub will fund around 20 PhD students and two post-doctoral researchers, equipping them with the expertise to develop solutions and inform critical decisions on the safe management, storage and disposal of one of the world’s largest civilian inventories of separated plutonium.
For safe disposal, the waste must be converted into a solid ceramic material to make it stable before disposal in a deep geological facility.
Manchester will explore the fabrication, characterisation and testing of Disposal Mixed Oxide (DMOX), a modified version of MOX fuel used in nuclear reactors but adapted for safe disposal rather than energy production.
Sheffield will focus on zirconolite, a mineral known for its ability to immobilise radioactive waste, as well as performance of these zirconolite and DMOX materials under conditions found in a geological disposal facility.
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