the times, 21 nov. 2005…. nuclear power and defence are clearly back on the main political agenda....
TRANSCRIPT
The Times, 21 Nov. 2005….
Nuclear power and defenceare clearly back on the main political agenda.
The UK needs for well trainedstaff with expert skills in nuclear science, engineeringand related areas (materials,computational modelling, etc.)are clear.
What do we offer at Surrey ?
Nuclear Physics Radiation Physics
Nuclear experiment, Nuclear theory, Detector innovation, Medical Physics
£2M per year typical research income, 12 academic staff,typically 50 PhD and postdoctoral staff.
Three strong MSc programmes.
Grants incl: £3M / 5yr STFC Rolling Grant in nuclear physics;£0.65 M / 4yr HEXITEC CdZnTe;
£0.4M / 3yr security imaging…
Unique in the UK – all this in one place, and with effective collaoration
Surrey CNRP Research and Training Interests…of AWE Interest.....
CNRP Research Fundamental nuclear structure and reactions physics research.
Experimental, Theory & Applied nuclear research in a single group. Nuclear spectroscopy ; Nuclear characterisation ; Multi-parameter nuclear
data evaluation ; Nuclear reaction theory and measurement. Large scale, nuclear instrumentation development projects for gamma-ray
(RISING, AGATA) and charged particle-based (TIARA) research. Identification and characterisation of new isotopes and nuclear effects.
Radiation Detector and Related Materials Development Novel radiation physics materials and new radiation hard materials
Novel Radiation Dosimetry methods, inc. Auger spectrometry, presage gels. Environmental Monitoring and High-Resolution Gamma-ray measurements of
low-background measurements for nuclear waste assay etc.
Educational and Training MSc courses in Medical Physics ; Radiation & Environmental Protection; and
Radiation Detection and Instrumentation EngD and PhD studentships with AWE (e.g. nuclear reaction theory, materials
engineering etc.)
Examples of Some Existing Research and Training Links Between Surrey CNRP Physics and AWE…
Sir William Penney Professorial Fellowship (2006-9; renewed 2009) for Philip Walker for research into nuclear structure physics and nuclear isomers.
MSc Courses in Radiation Protection (REP) and Radiation Instrumentation (RDI) 11 AWE ‘badged’ students on MSc (REP) since 2006/7 session including 4 in current session. 6 other MSc (REP) graduates working at AWE as first post-MSc destination since 2005. AWE employees on new MSc course in Radiation Detection and Instrumentation Course Directors Paddy Regan (REP) ; Paul Sellin (RDI) and David Bradley (Medical Physics).
1 Year MPhys Research Students working in AWE Plasma Physics Group since 2007. (Michael Rubery employed by AWE Plasma Group following MPhys graduation). MPhys co-ordinator (Paddy Regan; AWE Visiting Research Tutor, Phil Walker).
Dr. Andrew Simons (AWE, Plasma Physics Group) Visiting Research Fellow in Physics Department at Surrey; working on fundamental nuclear structure and isomer physics research with Zsolt Podolyak, Phil Walker & Paddy Regan.
AWE-based PhD studentship in nuclear reaction theory (James Benstead) working on fundamental nuclear reaction cross-section calculations with Jeff Tostevin.
2 Joint Surrey-AWE PhD projects on radiation detection, Surrey supervisor Paul Sellin.
Example of Surrey-AWE Collaboration in Fundamental Nuclear Physics Research… New Isotopes and Exotic Nuclear Isomers observed at GSI using the
RISING Gamma-Ray Spectrometer – EPSRC / STFC Funded Research
Assay of Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials using High-Resolution Gamma-ray Spectrometry
235U Decay Chain 232Th Decay Chain 238U Decay Chain
Q210Pb) = 5.41 MeVE = 5.30 MeV E(206Pb) = 0.11 MeVT1/2 = 138 days.
‘218Po =Radium A’
‘218At =Radium B’
C
D
E
210Po=Radium ‘F’ Radon
=‘Emanation’
‘Radium’
C’
C’’
The Natural Decay Chain for 238U
= 214Pb
= 214Bi
PROTON ENERGY vs. LAB ANGLE
SIMULATION
DATA 26Ne(d,p)
Si/CsIGe ray
Si
Si
Simulation of radiation detection – charged particles, gammasand neutrons
p
GEANT Monte Carlosimulation
BaF2 array
Experimentaldata.
152Eusource
26Na -decaydata
S. Williams, P.Jenneson, P.H. Regan et al., J. Phys. G31 (2005) S1979
Surrey/AWE Radiation Detection research
Current projects with AWE include 2 PhD student projects to develop new radiation detection technologies:
Neutron criticality dosimetry(Richard Greenwood, Health Physics Group)
A PhD project develop new detector technologies for real-time measurement of fast neutron/gamma dose following a criticality incident
The project is developing Optically Stimulated Luminescence dosimetry detector based on sapphire optical fibres
These devices aim to replace the traditional dosimetry ‘buttons’ which require several hours of off-line analysis to produce a dose estimate
Silicon Carbide neutron detectors (John O’Malley / Ian Smith, Threat Reduction Group)
Starting in October 2009, a new project to develop radiation-hard SiC fast neutron detectors, for stand-off neutron interrogation projects
SiC has a higher fast neutron sensitivity that Si, due to the lighter C nuclei A collaborative project with DNDO, Westinghouse, and Navy Research
Laboratories in the US
MSc in Radiation Detection and Instrumentation
The Physics Department’s new MSc in Radiation Detection and
Instrumentation (RDI) currently has 1 AWE employee registered on the
course (Gemma Hurst, Threat Reduction Group) with 2 new AWE students
registered to begin part-time (2 years, one day per week Oct - May) study
for this October with a summer dissertation project either at Surrey or AWE
For further information: www.ph.surrey.ac.uk/msc/rdi
Gemma’s 3 month summer project will use the Surrey proton accelerator to
measure the total photon yield from the 19F(p,)16O reaction
The Surrey accelerator provides protons more than 3 MeV
The performance of different fluorinated target materials will be assessed
in terms of suitability as a gamma source for cargo inspection systems
MSc Level Radiation Laboratory & Project Work
MSc students perform experiments on (for example….)
Introduction to Ionizing Radiation Introduction to Gamma-ray Spectroscopy Compton Scattering and Attenuation The Szillard-Chalmers Reaction Ion Exchange Separation of Uranium from Copper Beta Counting and Spectroscopy Alpha Spectroscopy Fast-timing using Scintilation detectors Radioactive Contamination of Surfaces Thermoluminescense Dosimetry Neutron Detection and Spectroscopy X-ray Fluorescence
Students spend significant time (90 hours) in our recently refurbished radiation laboratories. Students work in pairs for the 10 week laboratory sessions.
Students can use SurreyIon Beam Centre (2 MV tandetron machines) forapplied project work, suchas nuclear reaction analysis(NRA), RBS & PIXE.
Surrey MPhys 1 Year Reseach Placements at AWE….
Activation of Al, Cu, Y and Zn most complicated fit to date
A=∫S(E)·σ(E) ·ρ·x dE
Materials Research At Surrey
Materials is also a key research theme at Surrey
There are two key institutes:
Surrey Materials Institute – covers structural materials
Advanced Technology Institute – covers functional materials
Both Institutes have a major interest in materials characterisation
– the Ion Beam Centre is part of the ATI and the SMI houses the MicroStructural Studies Unit and the Surface Analysis Laboratory.
Degrees and Courses in Materials
MSc in Advanced Materials
Accredited by The Institute of Materials, Mining and Minerals
Available to full-time and part-time students
Taught as a series of one week intensive short courses which are available to delegates as continuous professional development
AWE has had a series of MSc students and sent numerous delegates on courses, including Introduction to Physical Metallurgy, Materials Under Stress, Characterisation of Materials
Industrial Doctorate Centre (IDC) (Contact: Prof. Julie Yeomans)The University has been running an Engineering Doctorate
(EngD) in Micro- and NanoMaterials and Technologies (MiNMaT) since 2005.
The new IDC will deliver a modified EngD Programme.
EPSRC has provided £6.2 million to fund the IDC in MiNMaT – this will fund 50 Research Engineers (REs) over 5 intakes; the University has agreed to fund a further 5 REs
All Research Engineers are based with their sponsor throughout the four year research (EngD) degree.
Their project must incorporate a significant amount of materials characterisation, most likely using the University's characterisation facilities for up to 20 days per year.
Centre for Environmental StrategyDirector: Professor Matthew Leach
www.surrey.ac.uk/ces
Long term strategy of CES
“Take a multi-disciplinary approach to the analysis of sustainable systems, integrating strong, engineering-based approaches with insights from the social sciences to develop action-oriented, policy-relevant responses to long-term environmental and social issues”
“Put sustainability at the heart of Surrey’s international reputation by building a comprehensive undergraduate and postgraduate teaching programme in sustainability across the University and expanding our research base in line with the emerging opportunities”
Areas of Research
Approaches/themes:-
sustainable systems: tools for analysis eg LCA, carbon footprinting, agent-based models, multi-criteria
methods
social research on sustainability values, attitudes, behaviours. Linked to departments of
Psychology, Sociology, Economics
policy/governance and corporate strategy for sustainability risk, roles of innovation, CSR, communication, regulation
Applied (largely) to:-systems analysis for lower carbon processes & productslow carbon energy systemswater resources and policylifestyles and environment (nb ESRC RESOLVE consortium)
Formal Methods Group, Department of Computing
Key Contacts: Professor Steve Schneider, Dr Helen Treharne
Involvement with AWE, interest in control systems
Past and current projects:
* FutureTech: Future technologies for System Design * Evaluating the Esterel Software/hardware co-design tool for high integrity systems
* System B : a development methodology using CSP||B * System B project extension
* PhD studentship: Formal meta-modelling tool development
Currently in discussion with respect to Orchestra
Bespoke training courses to AWE graduate recruits * Reviewing and Understanding formal methods
* Introduction to the B method * CSP and FDR
Areas for Discussion (as of 22nd November 2005….)
Possible future research collaboration areas…. Experimental nuclear physics e.g., isomers for energy storage.
(Walker, Regan et al.,)
Theoretical physics e.g., nuclear reaction code expertise, (Tostevin, Stevenson, Catford et al.,)
Data-base stewardship, nuclear data evaluation (all)
Radiation-hard materials for dosimetry (Sellin et al..,)
Opportunities for Wider Surrey – AWE Partnerships ?
Commissioned Research examples
Leveraging 3rd Party Funds E.g., STFC – PRD Surrey KTA with NPL Nuclear Skills Training Networks e.g., KNOO 2 (yesterday)
Bespoke training Atkins radiation physics course for AWE-based engineers
Staff secondments e.g., Surrey – NPL Allam
Regional Initiative and Multiway Partnerships SEPNET NPL – AWE – Surrey triangular links
Outreach
Radiation Detection for other Security Applications
The detector group at Surrey has long-standing collaboration with DSTL Fort Halstead, with a current STFC-funded project to develop high efficiency X-ray and gamma ray detectors for security imaging
Mercuric Iodide is a new detector material with excellent quantum efficiency for X-rays and gammas above 300 keV
Potential interest for AWE Threat Reduction group, eg. for gamma ray imaging applications
A Surrey/DSTL/AWE meeting is planned this summer to further develop this work
Photon energy (keV)50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500
Det
ectio
n E
ffici
ency
(%
)
0
20
40
60
80
100 Si (500m)CdTe (500m)HgI2 (500m)
TlBr (500m)HgI2 (5mm)
TlBr (5mm)
HgI2 detector: 662 keV from 137Cs