National Nuclear User Facility Phase 2: Management Grant

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EPSRC
EPSRC
EPSRC
EPSRC
EPSRC

£42,518,560

Nov. 1, 2019

March 31, 2024

Sustaining the UK's nuclear capability and expertise requires a long term commitment to both appropriate facilities and a trained workforce to operate in (and help shape) the regulatory environment. Phase 2 of the NNUF project will support the installation and use of major new national nuclear facilities focussed on research challenges not covered by current investment, world-leading equipment for research on radioactive samples in universities with special nuclear expertise and the expansion of facilities at national laboratories to add new national capabilities for analysing radioactive materials. A particular focus of the management grant will be to encourage wide usage of these new facilities by UK researchers by establishing and operating an access scheme. The research undertaken on NNUF(2) facilities will support plant life extension programmes, future decommissioning and waste storage needs and the new build strategies, including the UK Advanced Modular Reactor programme.

Potential Impact:
Phase 2 of the National Nuclear User Facility will be the biggest investment in systems and facilities for radioactive materials research and development for a generation. The impact associated with it will, and indeed has to, be significant, diverse and wide-ranging. Effective management of this investment, in terms of monitoring and guiding progress, administering research support fund to ensure the facilities are very widely used, organising steering panel meetings and coordinating reporting to BEIS via EPSRC, will be critical to generating this impact.

NNUF(2) will offer career-changing opportunities for research students, postdoctoral researchers and early-career academics in the UK. In some cases, this will lead to permanent appointments at HEIs or national laboratories, all benefiting the future of the nuclear workforce.

Many of the new NNUF facilities will improve the international competitiveness of the UK with respect to nuclear energy research, specifically in the area of radioactive materials. They will provide a mechanism to upskill the existing UK nuclear community and to attract new researchers into a sector that urgently needs to reduce its age profile. New projects using new facilities on vital areas like the challenges of the civil-separated plutonium stockpile, accident-tolerant fuel development, robotics for waste disposal and decommissioning will develop new skills in the UK of international market value.