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Biography

I am currently the Dalton Nuclear Institute theme lead for Nuclear Environment and Waste, the Director of the Radioactive Waste Management Research Support Office, and the Director of the NNUF RADER Facility.

Research Interests

My research focuses on the behaviour of radioactive contaminants in engineered and natural environments. Development of nuclear weapons and nuclear power has left a legacy of radioactively contaminated land, effluents and radioactive wastes that need to be cleaned-up. The higher activity radioactive wastes will be disposed of in a deep geological disposal facility. Understanding the behaviour of radioactive contaminants in these environments is essential in managing our radioactive legacy. My work uses multiple approaches to understanding radionuclide behaviour in the environment integrating biogeochemical, spectroscopic and radiochemical techniques to gain a fuller picture of radionuclide behaviour in heterogeneous systems. My research programme has focussed on the behaviour of long lived radionuclides such as strontium, technetium, uranium, neptunium and plutonium in environmentally relevant materials. With my collaborators, I have developed state of the art approaches that allow us to interrogate the behaviour of these key radioactive contaminants in complex environments. Funded projects involve work on radioactive waste disposal, on effluent clean up, on contaminated land, on the fate of radioactive particles in the environment and on imaging uranium and neptunium speciation at trace levels. My work is funded through industry and the research councils and in Winter 2021, we have opened a National Nuclear User Facility for Radwaste Disposal and Environmental Remediation.

Research interests

Environmental radiochemistry, biogeochemistry, synchrotron speciation and imaging techniques.

My research has been funded via the NERC Biogeochemical Gradients and Radionuclide Transport (BIGRAD) Consortium, NERC proposals on imaging, radioactive hot particles and radioativity in natural environments and EU proposals on microbiology in radioactive waste disposal. I also receive industrial funding from sponsors such as Sellafield Ltd., Radioactive Waste Management Ltd., the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, Areva Mining and BP.

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 6 - Clean Water and Sanitation
  • SDG 9 - Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
  • SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities
  • SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production
  • SDG 14 - Life Below Water
  • SDG 15 - Life on Land

External positions

Director, Radioactive Waste Management Research Support Office, Radioactive Waste Management Ltd t/as Nuclear Waste Services

1 Jan 202031 Dec 2024

Research Beacons, Institutes and Platforms

  • Manchester Energy
  • Energy
  • Dalton Nuclear Institute
  • Manchester Environmental Research Institute

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