Advanced Inspection for Techniques for Graphite Core Reactors - Looking forward to the challenges of decommissioning

Dismantling of graphite moderated reactors requires novel, high-performance, safe and cost-efficient solutions for dismantling operations. This PhD project will build on the history of ten-years research between EDF-Energy and the University in the area of non-destructive testing for graphite core inspection. While previous work has focussed on new techniques for monitoring the condition of operational reactors during outages, this doctoral project will now identify what the challenges of adapting these techniques are and which new inspection tools can be developed for decommissioning to support international efforts in this field. This project is an engineering study to produce both scientific understanding and practical outputs, recommendations and demonstrators, which will help direct the application of non-destructive testing prior to and possibly during the dismantling of the reactor core. This is intended to inform industry plans for decommissioning of the UK fleet of Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors (AGRs) starting over the next decade.

The iCase student will undertake the following work:

Attend training courses on relevant areas such as nuclear technology and non-destructive testing.
Study and review current and proposed methods for AGR and Magnox core dismantling.
Identify and analyse particular opportunities for NDT to support the decommissioning requirements
Analyse current AGR inspection and methods and their potential for use in decommissioning.
Select particular sensing modalities for further investigation
Produce computer models to investigate the potential performance of the NDT systems.
Build laboratory experiments to demonstrate and assess each of the proposed NDT systems.
Compare measured and simulated results to validate the modelling and hence provide confidence on the ability to quantify their performance.
Draw conclusions and report as appropriate.
Document the results in a thesis and report the research in national / international conferences in the fields and leading scientific journals.

This project will consider new technology concepts for the non-destructive testing of the state of graphite cored reactors prior to dismantling. The research will gather evidence to underpin the proof-of-principle of these concepts, with computational and experimental systems. These are typically characteristics of low Technology Readiness Level (e.g. TRL 2 and 3).