‘Nuclear End States’ Industry/Academic Networking Workshop

This event is open to nuclear industry professionals as well as academics and early career researchers of any discipline. 

All nuclear reactors and other types of nuclear facilities must reach an agreed site end state after the end of their operational life, which spans many decades. This will include decommissioning, decontamination, full or partial demolition of buildings and remediation of land. All materials generated through this process, as well as radioactive waste generated through the operational lifetime of the reactor, must be managed appropriately, in accordance with the level of risk of that material, for timescales of up to a million years. This includes landfill, at-surface disposal, near-surface disposal, deep geological disposal, and in some cases, in-situ disposal. These timescales bring unique environmental challenges, for example, around climate change, long-term prediction and monitoring.

Attaining "nuclear end states" efficiently and cost-effectively requires blue-sky thinking and state-of-the-art engineering, with strong networking between academia and those organizations responsible for bringing nuclear sites to the end of their life. Managing the environment during the multi-decade operational lifetime of nuclear reactors also brings unique challenges that research is required to resolve.

This workshop hosted by the South West Nuclear Hub is an opportunity to hear from industry and Government representatives about nuclear end states, the challenges that remain in attaining them, and how academic research across the disciplines could support this. Industry attendees include Nuclear Waste Services, Sellafield and EDF, with more to be confirmed. Academic speakers will highlight emerging areas of research that are being, or could be, used to support nuclear end states, as well as other environmental factors associated with the safe long-term operation and management of nuclear sites.

We aim to highlight potential funding opportunities, build support for a developing a bid for a NERC Centre for Doctoral Training in Nuclear End States (subject to internal processes) and to host a structured networking event, to establish new academic-industry partnerships.

This event is open to nuclear industry professionals as well as academics and early career researchers of any discipline, including, but not limited to: Earth Sciences, Civil Engineering, Materials Science & Engineering, Geographical Sciences, Advanced Manufacturing, Anthropology, Policy Studies, Sociology, Biological Sciences, Design Engineering, Chemistry, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Physics etc.

This workshop is co-funded by the Cabot Institute Community Event Fund.