Nuclear Aluminium: To Corrode or Not To Corrode – That is the Question

Supervisors:

1) Professor Colin Boxall

2) Dr Fabrice Andrieux

3) Matthew O’Sullivan, Sellafield Ltd.

4) Tom Bainbridge, Sellafield Ltd.

Since the 1950s, Sellafield site has been the hub of the UK nuclear industry. Across this time the site has been used for various activities including, experimental reactors, commercial power generation, fuel and waste storage and fuel reprocessing.

These activities have generated aluminium wastes that are planned to be retrieved from existing facilities and held in modern storge facilities before eventual conditioning for disposal within a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF). This includes British Experimental Pile fuel (BEP0) from the Windscale Pile reactors (stored within ponds) as well as miscellaneous aluminium items disposed of to the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo (MSSS) which received primarily Magnox swarf resulting from de-canning of Magnox fuel between the 1960s and the 1990s.

To appropriately manage these wastes, Sellafield must understand aluminium behaviour in different storage environments. Evidence for the corrosion of aluminium in the environments at Sellafield is limited and often contradictory. Experimental trials have previously concluded that aluminium will not corrode in the presence of Magnox corrosion product. Observations have been made from inspection of material in the ponds that some aluminium items have corroded whilst others have not. Whereas observations from retrieval activities so far in MSSS indicate that the aluminium waste items in this facility are likely to have largely corroded away.

The aim of this project is to study the corrosion of aluminium in environments analogous to current and future storage conditions at Sellafield. The results of this project will influence strategy for retrieval, storage conditioning and disposal of nuclear wastes.

This project is a collaboration between Lancaster University and Sellafield Ltd. Experimental work will be conducted primarily in Lancaster’s UTGARD (Uranium-Thorium

beta-Gamma Active R&D) Lab (https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/engineering/research/facilities/utgard-laboratory/)

This project is offered through the SATURN CDT (Skills And Training Underpinning a Renaissance in Nuclear Centre for Doctoral Training):

https://www.saturn-nuclear-cdt.manchester.ac.uk/

For further information: https://www.saturn-nuclear-cdt.manchester.ac.uk/

For further information: http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/engineering/

To apply for this PhD, please first send an email expressing interest to saturn@manchester.ac.uk. And c.boxall@lancaster.ac.uk. You should then apply using the on-line application form available at:

https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/applying-for-postgraduate-study/

You should address your background and suitability for this project in your personal statement.

SATURN_Nuclear_CDT