The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

The first conference of a new organisation focusing on nuclear waste management has been a resounding success, according to the NDA's Dr Melanie Brownridge.

Melanie, Head of Research and Development, made the opening industrial speech at the inaugural two-day event in the National Railway Museum, York, which was attended by around 120 delegates, including postgraduate students, academic supervisors, industry representatives and regulators.

The aim was to allow the academics to share aspects of their highly specialised research with industry leaders, while providing an industrial and commercial context for the students.

DIAMOND (Decommissioning, Immobilisation And Management Of Nuclear Waste For Disposal) is a consortium of six universities lead by Professor Simon Biggs at the University of Leeds. The consortium includes representatives from the University of Manchester, University College London, Imperial College London, Loughborough University and University of Sheffield, and was formed in response to a call for proposals in the field of nuclear waste management by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

DIAMOND's unique approach is to begin the dialogue at a much earlier stage of the doctoral projects, which last several years, and to operate on a multi-disciplinary basis, rather than focusing on a narrow range of nuclear-related subjects.

Melanie said: "The benefit for the students was to begin to see the context of their work which is very specialised, and to allow them to understand how important their work is to the industry. It was an excellent and challenging event for everyone involved."

The event was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, with sponsors including the NDA, Sellafield Ltd, National Nuclear Lab, Amec, Tessella, UKAEA, ParticlesCIC and Nuclear Technologies plc.

Melanie and NDA Research Manager Darrell Morris joined Bruce Hanson (NNL) and David Lever (Serco) on the judging panels for the Best Oral Presentation and Best Poster Presentation from the students.

Sunny Phuah from Imperial College and Claire Thorpe from the University of Leeds each received a £250 prize from the NDA, presented by Melanie.

One final point of interest for Dr Brownridge (nee Gresley) was the opportunity to see at first hand the designs of her distant relative and engineering genius Sir Nigel Gresley, designer of the Flying Scotsman and the Mallard.