Cohort 2
Raifa Al Maamari
University of Cambridge
Multi-physics reactor design optimisation
The modelling of nuclear reactor systems is one of the most challenging tasks in complex system modelling, due to the many different scales and coupled physical phenomena involved. This project will explore ways in which state-of-the-art approaches to surrogate modelling and multifidelity analysis can be employed to facilitate multi-physics analysis and design optimisation of nuclear systems. Fully computational, the project involves a combination of established analysis (reactor physics, thermal hydraulics etc.), surrogate modelling and optimisation codes together with self-written software. Test cases will be drawn from established benchmarks and near-deployment candidate future reactor designs.
What Hobbies do you have (e.g. sports, video games etc.)?
Dancing, Swimming, Gym fitness
Why did you want to do a PhD?
I am doing a Ph.D. to find and fill a knowledge gap, develop transferrable skills that would be beneficial to my future career, and to continue to develop patience and determination to finish projects I am passionate about.
Where is your favourite place to be?
Home
Chris Allen
University of Bristol
Creep-plasticity interaction in high-temperature reactor materials
Ultimate goal is to see if it is possible to distinguish between plasticity and creep damage experimentally using high temperature tensile tests, digital image correlation and diffraction techniques. 316H stainless steel is being used as the model material in question due to its frequent use in fission (and fusion) reactors.
Feena Arey
University of Bristol
Enhancing system resilience and organisational safety in the nuclear industry through joined-up regulation, policy and procedures
Managing the complexity of nuclear power presents unique challenges for safety and resilience. Defence in depth, risk management, active monitoring and robust passive safety systems are combined with behavioural and organisational approaches to develop strong nuclear safety cultures. If designed in isolation from one another these proactive measures can however combine to form tightly coupled networks of incentives, corrective actions, procedures, safety-systems, causes and effects that ultimately increase the fragility of the overall system. The project aim is to use technological innovations and behavioural insights to identify areas of vulnerability, key leverage points and actions to improve safety and reduce the risk of high-impact low-probability events.
What Hobbies do you have (e.g. sports, video games etc.)?
Spearfishing
Would you rather have invisibility or flight, why?
Invisibility, Spearfishing would be easy then.
If you could be any animal what would you be, and why?
A Grizzly Bear. They get to live in beautiful places, fish all day and chase away people that bother them. Hibernating sounds good too, You get to eat all summer getting super fat, then you go to sleep over winter and when you wake up in spring you are thin again.
Angelo Battistini
Imperial College London
Modelling the behaviour of interfaces in TRISO coated particle fuel during thermal transients using Peridynamics
I am working to develop an interface model for the different layers present in TRIstructural ISOtropic coated particle fuel. This issue is fundamental to understand the fracture mechanism of this accident tolerant nuclear fuel, in order to study the dependence of its failure on reactor parameters such as temperature, power or pressure.
Where is your favourite place to be?
Every place is my favourite, if I am there with my friends. But yeah, the Sardinian pub close to my home in Milan would still be one of my first choices.
If you could time travel, when (and where, we all know about space-time) would you go?
Obviously in Rome during the foundation of Rome, to see if the legend is true. That would be 2700 years in the past, give or take 50 years.
What are your favourite pizza topping/s?
Mushrooms and ham.
Corey Bevan
Bangor University
Ageing of Plutonium Dioxide Powders
I will be performing atomistic simulations of Plutonium Dioxide (Perhaps other fluorite structures too...) in order to gain better understanding of how actinide oxide crystallites age in storage environments through theoretical modelling. My PhD is sponsored by AWE (Atomic Weapons Establishment) in order to aid the field of nuclear forensic science.
What Hobbies do you have (e.g. sports, video games etc.)?
Outside of my scholarly life I am an athlete, having played American Football throughout my university years. Due to a long history of head injuries however, instead of running into large people for fun I now practise Brazillian Jiu Jitsu, a modern grappling art commonly seen in MMA.
Where is your favourite place to be?
Newborough Beach, North Wales, if you know you know...
Would you rather have invisibility or flight, why?
Flight, I’d save a pretty penny on travel expenses.
Mustafa Bolukbasi
Bangor University
The Economics of Nuclear Fuel Cycle
The increase in energy demand and decrease of resources require more efficient use of resources. In this context, Mustafa's project focuses on identifying the potential use of advanced and novel fuels for light water reactors and eliminating the uncertainty on economic advantages of these fuels.
What did you want to be when you were younger?
I always wanted to be a cameraman who works for the national geographic channel. Sometimes I ask myself is there still a chance for that? Give me a call if there is one.
Where is your favourite place to be?
I would love to see the Egyptian pyramids especially the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Oliver Conway
Imperial College London
Mathematical and Computational Modelling for Nuclear Criticality Safety Analysis and Assessment of Interacting Arrays of Loosely Coupled Systems Containing Special Nuclear Materials (SNMs)
Develop novel mathematical and computational methods for modelling the nuclear criticality excursion behaviour of interacting arrays of loosely coupled systems containing fissile material. The method will analyse systems containing mixtures of array components which are sub-critical, super-critical or where an extraneous (or external) neutron source is introduced into the system. The aim of the analysis is to prevent situations of accidental criticality conditions when storing nuclear material.
What Hobbies do you have (e.g. sports, video games etc.)?
I change my activities fairly often, I do swimming, skiing, rock climbing, cycling, weights in the gym, sewing, kayaking and scuba diving. But I often find myself coming back to video games.
What movie can you watch over and over without ever getting tired of?
Shrek
Why did you want to do a PhD?
I tried out research work at my previous University and enjoyed the ability to manage my own time, and the work feels satisfying when you complete a problem, a PhD seemed the best next step for more! Talking to careers advisors, PhDs seem to give you a good standing for jobs in science, or jobs of any kind really. Also, I like the sound of “Dr Conway”.
Tom Griffiths
Imperial College London
The optimum role of nuclear fusion in carbon free future energy systems
Tom has joined the Nuclear Energy Futures Lab in October 2020 as a PhD student in the Department for Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College London. His research focus is on 'The optimum role of nuclear fusion in carbon-free future energy systems', under the supervision of Dr. Mike Bluck. Tom is a member of the Grantham Institute PhD cohort. His PhD will be looking closely at how compact fusion reactors may enter the energy mix and how this may look different to other fusion pathways.
Why did you want to do a PhD?
Having contemplated it for a while during my masters and during my time working in an office, I realised I wanted to pursue and academic pathway to help disrupt the current energy narrative, and contribute to climate targets e.g. net zero.
What did you want to be when you were younger?
Tall
Would you rather have invisibility or flight, why?
Flight – for the views.
Aidan Gunn
University of Bristol
Investigating the effect of Zn addition to corrosion of alloy-600 in water-cooled reactors
My PhD tries to understand the role of Zn injection in crack initiation and propagation in alloy 600 weld material. I'll be using autoclave facilities at the University of Bristol to do short-term exposures to water at PWR temperatures and pressures, varying the amount of Zn added during the test. We'll then do a matrix of different hot functional tests; with and without H2 and with or without Zinc. This work will investigate the effect of zinc injection during the hot functional testing, followed by continuous injection and discontinued injection. The results will help shape approaches to prevent stress corrosion cracking in primary coolant system components.
Florence Legg
University of Bristol
Investigating Actinide Oxide Activity in Waste
Legacy plutonium in the UK is stored as plutonium oxide powder in sealed cannisters. Over time, the plutonium oxides react with water vapour in the environment, producing hydrogen. The amount of hydrogen produced, and therefore the activity of the waste, is currently difficult to predict. When this material is to be transferred into GDF-suitable containers it is important to be able to predict how much hydrogen is produced and suitable storage conditions. This PhD topic involves investigating the activity of plutonium, uranium and thorium oxides in storage conditions, and investigate the reactions that occur.
What Hobbies do you have?
I do a lot of outdoor sports - including running, cycling, hiking and climbing. I have also tried some home brewing.
Why did you want to do a PhD?
From my Masters research project I found that I really enjoyed independently working on a research area, and being able to determine my own approach to the project.
I have also completed a year in industry working with Sellafield Ltd. which sparked my interest in nuclear decommissioning and waste management, and made me want to work in the area in a research capacity.
Where is your favourite place to be?
The lake district, I spent my year in industry there and loved the hiking trails and camping spots.
Daniel Long
Imperial College London
Modelling Delayed Hydride Cracking and Crack Growth in Zirconium Cladding
Delayed hydride cracking is a phenomenon which can occur in metallic alloys subjected to thermal cycling. At elevated temperatures, hydrogen diffuses preferentially to crack tips and precipitates at high concentrations, forming hydride phases. These hydride precipitates give rise to stress concentration at crack tips and can influence crack growth-rates significantly. DHC is of particular interest in zirconium alloys, which are used as cladding material in nuclear reactors. My project aims to develop novel crystal plasticity models, coupled with hydrogen diffusion models (accounting for hydride formation and dissolution), building upon a computational modelling framework developed by Dr David Wilson, which enabled mechanistic understanding of fatigue crack growth in zirconium alloys.
Where is your favourite place to be?
Mulranny, Co. Mayo in Ireland – a small village situated next to mountains, woodlands, freshwater streams and the beach – idyllic! It’s also home to my grandparents.
What did you want to be when you were younger?
Aeroplane pilot.
Would you rather have invisibility or flight, why?
Flight, free daily commute
Cameron Macdonald
Imperial College London
Neutron irradiation damage modelling of interface strengthened ferritic superalloys for high temperature fusion applications
Containing and producing energy from even a small fraction of a star’s core is no mean feat – you need the right materials for the task. My project aims to model how a particular class of Ni and Al doped superalloy steels stands up to the extreme punishment that a plasma facing material must endure inside of a fusion reactor. This modelling will be done computationally using a combination of molecular dynamics and density functional theory based simulations.
Why did you want to do a PhD?
I really enjoy science, physics specifically, and the idea of labouring for several years on a single, complicated project is appealing to me in an odd way. I’m aware that being able to choose to do something like this is an absolute luxury however, so out of a sense of gratitude, trite as it sounds, I feel like I should put my efforts towards something that will hopefully benefit others. That’s how I found myself looking at a nuclear energy PhD.
What is your favourite board game / card game?
Poker and Trivial Pursuit are pretty fun.
Would you rather have invisibility or flight, why?
Flight is way cooler than invisibility! It sounds a hell of a lot more freeing. Far be it for me to disparage, but I think anyone who picked invisibility is probably also a pervert.
Joe Pollard
Imperial College London
Hydride-based shielding materials for compact fusion power reactors (Tokamak Energy)
Transition Metal hydrides have particular interest in the nuclear fusion industry as shielding materials due to their advanced neutronic and thermal-mechanical properties. These relatively novel materials are by nature difficult to fabricate into fully dense parts and their performance is yet to be fully investigated. My project will investigate:
The thermal stability of these hydrides
Advanced powder metallurgy processing of metal hydrides
Characterise the properties of these materials and understand them relative to function in a nuclear fusion reactor.
I am sponsored by Tokamak Energy and will be collaborating with Los Alamos National Laboratory as part of the INFUSE project.
Why did you want to do a PhD?
To help solve complex problems that are impacting the big challenges the world is currently facing. You’ll always be doing something you’re interested in and you get to use big expensive equipment. The opportunities to travel are also another great reason to do PhD.
If you could visit one place on earth where would you go?
The Pub (Speaking from lockdown)
If you could choose two famous people (dead or alive) to have dinner with, who would you choose?
Henry Rollins and Kobe Bryant
Nathan Ravoisin
University of Cambridge
Using Artificial Intelligence to Validate and Predict Nuclear Reactions Cross-Sections
Nuclear reactor cross-sections are parameters of paramount importance in the design, operation and safety assessment of any nuclear device and are highly dependent on several variables such as incident particle kinetic energy and target isotopic composition. In practice, cross-sections are measured experimentally; nevertheless, these measurements may suffer from inaccuracies and / or not cover sufficient incident particle energy ranges. My project therefore aims at applying artificial intelligence methods (e.g. Gaussian Processes, Symbolic Regression, …) to help predict and / or validate nuclear cross-section data.
Where is your favourite place to be?
Cape Town, South Africa.
If you could time travel, when (and where, we all know about space-time) would you go?
A couple thousand years in the future. I’d be curious to see if humanity is still there, and if so, what cool technology scientists and engineers have developed.
If you could choose two famous people (dead or alive) to have dinner with, who would you choose?
Einstein and Bohr. I would love to hear their thoughts about modern advances in science.
Rosie Smart
University of Bristol
An investigation of metallic uranium corrosion in a Geological
Disposal Facility (GDF) setting.
Despite all MAGNOX reactors now being retired, we still need to dispose of the inventory of MAGNOX spent fuel. The accepted disposal solution in England is via a deep geological disposal facility. Such a facility will aim to isolate nuclear waste for 100,000 years, by which time the radioactive waste will have decayed into background levels of radioactivity. My PhD aims to investigate how uranium would corrode and behave over such long timescales and under the evolving conditions of a geological disposal facility. Uranium corrosion is important to investigate to ensure the safety of a disposal facility, both in the short- and long-term.
Where is your favourite place to be?
The Yorkshire Dales. The patchworked rolling valleys, the sound of sheep bleating, and (best of all) returning to the campsite after a hot summer’s day to sit back into a camping chair around the fire pit with an ice-cold beverage.
What did you want to be when you were younger?
I wanted to be a farmer. My family are beef and arable farmers and so as a child I had always imagined taking over the farm and marrying a local farmer. Since going to university and now embarking on my PhD, I doubt I’ll return to the Fenlands and leave my partner for a farmer. Whilst farming is no longer a career for me, this old dream has evolved into buying a small holding when I retire. I would like to learn how to milk a cow, butcher meat and grow my own vegetables for a more self-sustaining lifestyle.
What is the one food you can never bring yourself to eat?
Sushi. It is RAW FISH?! We are civilised humans who have learnt to cook and for good reason!
Phil Smith
University of Bristol
Improving the performance of Advanced Technology Fuels (ATF)
The drive for change in nuclear fuel design is towards accident tolerance, which specifically relates to the absence or delay of high-temperature clad oxidation by coolant. Any replacement for UO2 fuel must offer a combination of safer operation with lower fuel cycle cost; either longer cycles or lower enrichment. The candidate material that offers the greatest combination of these properties with the potential for industrial scale-up is currently uranium mononitride, UN. However, there is a major behavioural draw-back in that water, and more importantly during operation, high T water/steam, is significantly more corrosive to UN than the UO2 oxide fuel currently employed in water moderated reactors.The proposed PhD project will specifically address the two key issues that are driving research of accident tolerant fuels (ATF): thermal conductivity degradation and corrosion behaviour, with the main focus on the fuel-water interaction.
Ryan Stroud
Imperial College London
Atom probe tomography and microscale mechanical testing of neutron irradiated Sizewell B reactor pressure vessel steel
My project uses the hot cells and active focus ion beam facilities at the Materials Research Facility (MRF) in Culham and the active materials atom probe facility at Oxford University to study irradiated material from a PWR. The aim is to study how the neutron irradiation damage has evolved at the nano-scale and compare how microstructural changes, made by pre-straining the material, before irradiation, has changed the radiation response of the steel. My end goal is to use the results to extend the lifetime of current LWRs, which in turn will help mitigate the release of CO2 emissions.
Jack Trainor
Imperial College London
High performance radiation transport methods with ray effect mitigation
Given the nature of my PhD, I can’t really give much of a synopsis other than to say that my title is ‘High performance radiation transport methods with ray effect mitigation’ and my work is pretty computational. That basically means I spend my time dealing with segmentation errors and having the compiler call my code ‘unexpected trash’.
Why did you want to do a PhD?:
I’d already done a nuclear based bachelor’s and master’s, so why not go all in and do a nuclear PhD while I’m at it? In all seriousness, doing a PhD in the nuclear field allowed me to develop my knowledge and contribute to the development of an area of science that I’ve always been passionate about. And I’m not complaining about the Dr title.