Environmental Radioactivity Research Network

The UK has a substantial nuclear legacy (large quantities of nuclear contaminated land, waste, and aging nuclear facilities). In the coming decades, these wastes will be managed via geodisposal and legacy nuclear sites will be decommissioned at great cost to the taxpayer. Further, the recent Fukushima incident has highlighted a range of issues concerning nuclear incident impact in the environment. The Environmental Radioactivity Research tasks associated with facilitating and informing these issues are many and non-trivial. In particular, successful geodisposal, decommissioning, and nuclear incident response will require the production and interpretation of fundamental atomic and nano-scale information concerning radionuclide behaviour in heterogeneous environmental materials, across a range of concentrations. Further, computer modelling is needed to bridge complex spatial and temporal scales. Gaining this information and knowhow requires unprecedented interaction between the UK Environmental Radioactivity Community, STFC analytical/computing infrastructure and expertise, and the relevant governmental and industry bodies. Reflecting this, we seek to engage this need by developing a forward thinking collaborative network (Env-Rad-Net) that seeks to coordinate, inform, and promote fundamental Environmental Radioactivity Research at a range of STFC central facilities. Indeed, over three years the Env-Rad-Net will aim to bring together the relevant members of the Research Community, the STFC, and associated partners (e.g., government agencies (NNL, NNL and RWMD), nuclear industry etc.) to develop the capability, activity, and impact of UK research in this field. In particular, we anticipate the network will focus on building strategic collaborations with the Diamond Light Source, ISIS, Central Lasers Facility, and High Performance Computing facilities, as we foresee that development of methods at these centers will allow the community to address vital issues concerning sample heterogeneity, radionuclide concentration, and scale. To achieve this, the overarching network objective will be met through several activities: holistic and more specialised community meetings, international fact-finding and research trips, training and mentoring programmes, and research consortium building exercises. These activities will take place across a range of specially designed Work Packages (WP) linked through several Cross Cutting Themes (CCT). Further, key scientists (academics and STFC scientists) will manage each WP and CCT, and an expert steering panel will be used to inform the networks overall remit, direction, and implementation. We believe that these activities will provide a range of tangible benefits to the UK Environmental Radioactivity Community, the STFC, and indeed wider society. For example, the Env-Rad-Net will: increase the number of research groups using STFC facilities; train the next generation of Environmental Radioactivity Researchers in the use of a range of state-of-the-art analysis and computational techniques; provide a legacy of technical developments at the STFC facilities that will enable future research; engage the wider nuclear community (NDA, NDA-RWMD etc.) to ensure research using STFC facilities is fully engaged with the large programmes of nuclear geodisposal, decommissioning, and nuclear incident response, improving the success of these major programmes whilst also bolstering public confidence. In summation, Env-Rad-Net will instigate a step change in research capability and output in the broad field of Environmental Radioactivity and this increase in ability will deliver significant national-level economic impact.

Who will benefit from this network?

Commercial / Private Sector

Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA): UK Decommissioning and Radioactive Waste Management activities are overseen by the NDA. At this stage we have made the NDA aware of the network proposal, and we will strengthen this link upon initiation of the Env-Rad-Net to ensure knowledge transfer.

Nuclear Decommissioning Authority - Radioactive Waste Management Directorate (NDA-RWMD): The NDA-RWMD is responsible for implementing the geological disposal of UK High Activity Wastes, and they are currently developing the UK geodisposal safety case. Shaw, Law, and several other key network participants have extant links with the NDA-RWMD (e.g., via the NERC BIGRAD and EPSRC AMASS). These links will be used to engage the NDA-RWMD as network participants upon initiation of the Env-Rad-Net, thus ensuring two-way knowledge transfer.

National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL): NNL (previously NIREX) is a government owned, contractor-operated company. It is responsible for supporting the UK's strategic nuclear R & D and for developing specialised, high-level skills in the nuclear environmental sciences. A key member of the NNL team (Dr. Small) will sit of the Env-Rad-Net steering committee thus ensuring knowledge transfer between the Env-Rad-Net and NNL.

Policy Makers

National level: Members of the Env-Rad-Net have policy links to geological disposal (DECC, CoRWM), new nuclear power (DECC and BIS) and on nuclear security (FERA) and nuclear incident response (GDS).

Local level: Decommissioning and geodisposal facilities will be hosted at a local council level, and the Env-Rad-Net will seek to link with, for example, imminent developments in the UK Geodisposal forward programme.

Wider public

Across the network, we have a track record in public engagement.

How will they benefit from this network?

Commercial-Private Sector

NDA, NDA-RWMD and NNL will benefit directly from the enhanced community in environmental radioactivity that will result from the network. At a higher level the network will directly address issues affecting environment and energy, and more specifically will produce new research that can be used in underpinning management and implementation issues in the nuclear sciences.

Policy makers

The release of radionuclides from nuclear sites, nuclear security, and safe management of nuclear wastes and the subsequent mobility of radionuclides in the environment are subjects of intense public concern. At the same time, radioactivity spans the remit of many research councils and government departments. By creating a new network interface between STFC facilities and the wider nuclear environmental science community we will assist in developing a refreshed research base in this area. It is clear that a healthy research base will provide capability in providing independent scrutiny in forward plans for geodisposal, low-level waste disposal and indeed for contaminated land and nuclear legacy management: Capability that will be crucial in implementation of these significant managerial, technical and environmental challenges over the next two decades.

Wider Public

We will actively engage with initiatives hosted within the STFC (e.g. DIAMOND Communications Office, Open Days etc.) to communicate the activities of the Env-Rad-Net to a wider audience. This will ensure a high level of public understanding.

Skills

The Env-Rad-Net is focussed on skills development and exploitation of STFC facilities. We anticipate developing skills of the wider environmental science community in working with environmental radioactivity challenges, of the radiochemistry and modelling community to develop their links into STFC facilities, and of cross STFC exploitation within the network.