A new age for nuclear?

With the prospect emerging of new nuclear power stations being constructed in the UK, investment in focused science and technology and the development of the skilled workforce needed to design, build and operate next-generation plant have become crucial.

Nuclear power is widely seen as a key component in the technology mix needed to meet UK energy requirements in the decades ahead – contributing to carbon reduction targets and the security of energy supplies.

From 2005 to 2010, the Keeping the Nuclear Option Open (KNOO) initiative, funded by the Research Councils UK Energy Programme, succeeded in delivering important advances in nuclear research, while maintaining expertise and developing the new cohort of skilled specialists needed to underpin new nuclear build. Overall, it helped ensure that the UK’s nuclear option remained open. “This programme sustained the academic nuclear power research base at a key moment ensuring its ability to help tackle the challenges associated with new nuclear build,” says Bob Ainsworth of British Energy.

Building on the platform provided by KNOO, the Energy Programme has now invested almost £8m in an ambitious initiative designed to address core challenges and develop key expertise as the UK potentially enters a new nuclear age. This initiative incorporates six different but complementary activities which aim to:

• Develop advanced computational models for assessing and predicting nuclear power plant behaviour, to help deliver the highest standards of plant safety and minimise environmental impact.
• Investigate the behaviour of graphite – a key component in future nuclear reactors – to ensure it can deliver the required level of performance over the 60-100 year operating life of new-generation high temperature reactors.
• Develop and model improved processes for the recovery and reuse of nuclear fuels (including the innovative use of ion-selective membranes) to help maximise nuclear energy’s cost-competitiveness and reduce waste disposal requirements.
• Generate, analyse and evaluate up-to-date nuclear data (e.g. of fission yield and gamma decay heat produced by the fission process), essential to the efficient operation of new nuclear plant and the safe disposal of radioactive waste.
• Assess and improve the long-term performance and reliability of metallic materials used, for example, in fuel cladding and the heat exchangers of nuclear power stations, to ensure they can function effectively in the demanding operating conditions experienced in high-temperature, high-load nuclear power plant.
• Develop advanced technologies and modelling capabilities to enhance the safety and performance of nuclear fuels and help devise improved fuel, fuel cladding and fuel coating materials.

This major four-year initiative will start later in 2010.