PhD Studentship - Investigating Environmental Redox Chemistry of Uranium and other Key Radionuclides using Novel Electrochemical Techniques

The EPSRC funded Studentship will cover full tuition fees at the Home student rate and a maintenance grant for 4 years, starting at the UKRI minimum of £19,237 pa. for 2024-2025. The Studentship also comes with access to additional funding in the form of a research training support grant which is available to fund conference attendance, fieldwork, internships etc.

A fully-funded PhD studentship is available to a chemistry or related discipline graduate with interests in environmental radioactivity. Decommissioning (clean-up) of nuclear legacy sites and disposal of radioactive waste is one of the biggest scientific and engineering challenges of the 21st Century. Long-lived radionuclides that are chemically stable in multiple oxidation states (e.g. U(IV), (V) and (VI) and Tc(IV) and (VII)) pose challenges across the UK’s nuclear licensed sites including nuclear disposal facilities and radioactive effluent treatment facilities. Typically, the oxidation state of radionuclides dominates the environmental radionuclide behaviour, including solubility and sorption, thereby directly influencing radionuclide mobility. This exciting project will develop and combine new state of the art approaches to fully understand and predict radionuclide reduction and oxidation (redox) chemistry under controlled conditions, including laboratory and synchrotron methods.

The successful candidate will apply novel environmental electrochemical approaches to studying and directly measuring the redox behaviour of radionuclides under conditions relevant to the UK’s nuclear legacy. In-situ experiments will be combined with a suite of state-of-the-art analytical techniques (X-ray spectroscopy, electron microscopy) to comprehensively understand the molecular-scale radionuclide speciation as the redox environment is altered, and how this relates to radionuclide mobility. The experimental research project will be carried out in the University of Manchester’s National Nuclear User Facility Radioactive waste Disposal and Environmental Remediation (NNUF RADER) environmental radioactivity lab suite (www.ees.manchester.ac.uk/wrc/research/facilities/rader) and will include solid- and solution-phase characterisation techniques. The research will develop a novel experimental methodology to define radionuclide speciation in Nuclear Decommissioning Authority relevant systems to directly inform contaminated land remediation and nuclear decommissioning strategy.

The successful applicant will join a welcoming, vibrant group of 20+ researchers examining environmental chemistry, microbiology and radioactivity research topics and receive training in a wide range of experimental techniques and methodologies including the handling of radioactive materials and X-ray absorption spectroscopy. They will also have the opportunity to present their research results to their nuclear industry supervisor, and at national and international research conferences. The project benefits from established links to the UK nuclear industry (e.g. co-funder Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, industrial supervision from the National Nuclear Laboratory) and the state of the art, nationally relevant facilities in the University of Manchester’s Department of Earth and Environmental Science. Furthermore, we have established links to cutting-edge synchrotron X-ray experiments via the Diamond Light Source. The student will benefit from co-funding through the SATURN Centre for Doctoral Training with a tailored training program across the nuclear fuel cycle. Our graduates are highly sought after, and >90 % of graduates from the group have first destination in nuclear related jobs.

In the first instance, please contact Kath Morris (katherine.morris@manchester.ac.uk) and Tom Neill (Thomas.neill@manchester.ac.uk) in relation to applications.

Applicants are expected to hold, or about to obtain, a minimum upper second class undergraduate degree (or equivalent) in Chemistry, Environmental Chemistry, Geosciences or a closely related discipline. A Master’s degree in a relevant subject, and/or experience in handling and analysis of environmental samples containing radionuclides are desirable.

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