Overview

Diamond Light Source, the UK national sychrotron source, is currently building an active materials laboratory to enable a much wider range of active material experiments to be done on site. An introduction to the lab and Diamond will be given, then three academic researchers will give case histories of active material experiments they have done at Diamond. Details of the way’s industrial researchers can access Diamond will be presented, finally there will be an opportunity for attendees to ask questions of the panel to help them identify how working at the synchrotron might aid them.

The webinar is aimed at people in the nuclear industry who may be unaware of the information that synchrotron experiments can obtain. It will explain the facilities at Diamond, what can be done there and how to access the facility.

Host

Professor Bruce Hanson, School of Chemical and Process Engineering, The University of Leeds

Professor Bruce Hanson is the University of Leeds’s Leadership Chair in Nuclear Process Engineering and an Honorary Professor of Nuclear Engineering at University College London. He also holds the role of Director for Student Education in the School of Chemical and Process Engineering.

Professor Hanson is director of Nuclear.Leeds, which has over 30 affiliated Academics and over 40 PDRAs and PhDs researchers as members. He is the PI on EPSRC’s ATLANTIC programme and a Co-Director of the GREEN CDT. Previous to his appointment at Leeds seven years ago, he spent 25+ years in the nuclear and chemical industries, across a range of functions from plant operation to research, specialising in actinide separations and treatment of irradiated nuclear fuel.

Most recently, he was the Technical Authority for Spent Fuel and Nuclear Materials at the National Nuclear Laboratory, leading internal R&D programmes in this area, as well as those on reactors and fuel development. He is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the NNL. Since joining the University of Leeds in 2012, he has been or is a named investigator on 10 grants, published 16 journal/conference papers and one book chapter. He currently leads a research group of four PDRAs, six PhDs and manages a research budget of over £5M.

Speakers

Fred Mosselmans, Principal Beamline Scientist responsible for I20, Diamond Light Source  

Fred has worked at synchrotrons for more than 25 years. He is currently the principal beamline scientist on the I20 beamline at Diamon. He is an expert in X-ray absorption spectroscopy and most of his research is in the field of environmental science. In particular, he has collaborated mainly with the University of Manchester in studying the interactions of actinides with environmentally relevant materials. He is the lead contact on active material experiments at Diamond and was awarded a ca. £4M NNUF II grant to build an active materials laboratory at Diamond and associated syncrotron suitable cells.

Elizabeth Shotton, Head of Industrial Liaison, Diamond Light Source

Since joining Diamond in 2007, Elizabeth Shotton has been the Head of the Industrial Liaison Group, responsible for all proprietary use of Diamond’s facilities.  After a PhD at University College London studying solid state properties of pigments, she worked at Daresbury Laboratory for 10 years in the industrial group.  Her main research areas are in the application of X-ray powder diffraction and small molecule crystallography to industrially relevant samples.

Prof Samuel Shaw, Professor in Environmental Mineralogy, The University of Manchester

The research conducted within my group is focus on understanding the molecular- and nano-scale mechanisms of mineral reactions which occur in the natural environment. We aim to determine the role of minerals in a wide variety of modern and ancient environmental process. This includes investigating natural mineral nanoparticle (e.g. iron oxyhydroxides) formation and their interaction with contaminants (e.g. toxic metal and radionuclides), and the study of marine carbonate minerals to determine ancient seawater chemistry and isotopic composition.

A major component of this research is focused on the development and use of synchrotron radiation techniques applied to studying environmental processes. This includes the use of environmental cells to perform time-resolved in situ diffraction and Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) studies of crystallisation and precipitation reactions. Also, X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) studies of metal and radionuclide binding to minerals and contaminated soils.

Prof Paul Mummery DPhil, FRMS / Publications, Chair in Nuclear Graphite Technology, The University of Manchester

I joined the University of Manchester in 2000 from the National Physical Laboratory. There I had proposed and managed projects in residual stress measurement, nanostructured materials, and inorganic foams. Before my position at the National Physical Laboratory, I was a lecturer at the University of Leeds, UK. I obtained a first class degree from the University of Bristol, UK in Chemical Physics before gaining a DPhil in Materials Science from the University of Oxford, UK.

Dr Claire Corkhill, MEarthSci Geology (Honours), Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The University of Sheffield

Claire was previously a post-doctoral research associate in the Departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Civil and Structural Engineering at the University of Sheffield.

She obtained a MEarthSci in Geology and a PhD in Mineralogy and Geochemistry at the University of Manchester, working on the dissolution of toxic metal-bearing minerals.

The material presented in this webinar has not been peer-reviewed. Any opinions are the presenter’s own and do not necessarily represent those of IChemE or the Nuclear Technology SIG. The information is given in good faith but without any liability on the part of IChemE.

Please note that this webinar will not be recorded.