The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

As the renaissance of nuclear power in the UK gathers pace, efforts are under way to meet the surging demand for high-level nuclear skills.

At the same time, the NDA has embarked on a decades-long, £70 billion-plus programme to clean up legacy nuclear waste sites.

 

It is clear that the UK will need expertise in the areas of physics, chemistry, materials science and environmental behaviour of radionuclides for many years to come. However, there is an acute shortage of trained nuclear scientists, with a demand estimated at 1,000 per year.

As part of efforts to rebuild high-level skills in the UK, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council has supported the establishment of the Nuclear Fission Research, Science and Technology (FiRST) Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) with a £7.1 million investment. The DTC, a partnership between the Universities of Manchester and Sheffield, admitted its first group of students in September and recently held an inaugural Winter School event in Buxton. It involves four leading research groups in nuclear science and engineering:

• Centre for Radiochemistry Research, Manchester
• Immobilisation Science Laboratory, Sheffield
• Materials Performance Centre, Manchester
• Environmental Engineering Science Group, Sheffield

Nuclear FiRST aims to underpin UK energy and defence strategy by addressing the growing doctoral skills gap in nuclear fission science and engineering.

A radically different approach to PhD study is being adopted, offering an interdisciplinary approach that combines a Masters-level foundation year with a three-year Doctoral level thesis project. This is supplemented by training in professional skills and project placements in industry or research institutes in the UK and overseas.

Because nuclear fission research crosses many normal academic disciplines, and because many undergraduate degrees no longer include much material of relevance, the students spend time learning about the wider aspects of nuclear fission research. The first year aims to give students a broad knowledge of the nuclear fuel cycle, through masters-level modules and two "taster" research projects, in order to make an informed choice of PhD topic.

At the end of their first year, students develop a PhD project proposal, which will form the basis of an individual thesis project. This opportunity for students to develop their own project is a unique and distinctive feature of the DTC programme. It is expected that many projects will be interdisciplinary, with co-supervision by academics at Manchester and Sheffield providing students with access to the world-class facilities at both institutions.

The DTC specifically aims to attract top-quality students and start them on the path to international scientific leadership by providing a balanced portfolio of scientific and professional expertise at doctoral level and equipping them to tackle long-term strategic challenges, whether in Government, regulators, industry or academia.

The Buxton event provided an opportunity for the students, researchers and the DTC Management Board, which includes Darrell Morris, Research Manager at the NDA, to meet and discuss the progress of the DTC. There were also presentations by three leading international nuclear scientists and a lively debate about nuclear power.

NDA provides additional financial support to a number of the DTC's academics through both its Research and Development and its Skills and Capability areas. For example, NDA is investing £10 million in conjunction with the University of Manchester in the development of nuclear decommissioning engineering capability and a state-of-the-art radiation sciences facility in West Cumbria. At the University of Sheffield, we are supporting a professorship in Nuclear Waste Management in conjunction with the Royal Academy of Engineering. All of the DTC research groups have previously been successful in attracting funding from either the NDA Bursary Scheme, an annual programme to support both students and academics in the area of decommissioning and clean-up, or the Direct Research Portfolio, a portfolio of NDA research projects focused on specific multi-site decommissioning and clean-up issues.

• More information on NDA's Research and Development
• More information on NDA's Concept Development Programme

Contact research@nda.gov.uk

For more information about the Nuclear FiRST DTC contact:

Nick Bryan: Centre for Radiochemistry Research, The University of Manchester
0161 275 7793 nick.bryan@manchester.ac.uk 

Neil Hyatt: Immobilisation Science Laboratory, The University of Sheffield
0114 222 5470 n.c.hyatt@sheffield.ac.uk