Chief Reactor Systems Nuclear Performance & Code Review Branch

i. Introduction

The first commercial nuclear power stations started functioning in the 1950s. At the start of January 2016, at that place were about 440 commercial nuclear ability reactors operable in 31 countries. 60-5 more reactors were nether construction, 173 are on order or planned, a farther 337 are proposed (http://world-nuclear.org/information-library/facts-and-figures/world-nuclear-power-reactors-and-uranium-requireme.aspx). Currently, some 56 countries operate a total of about 240 research reactors and a further 180 nuclear reactors ability some 140 ships and submarines; so equally it stands today effectually only under 11% of global electricity is provided past reliable, baseload, depression carbon, nuclear ability. The bulk is nonetheless provided by fossil fuels of one sort or another. Every bit nosotros seek to endeavor to curb carbon emissions, nuclear power forth with renewable sources of free energy will be increasingly important [i]. In regions of the world with meaning country intervention due east.one thousand. in Communist china and Bharat, construction of new nuclear power plants continue apace. But in areas where the free market prevails, the economic construct for nuclear energy is stalling the necessary investment.

The cost of nuclear energy is dominated by the toll of capital and its financing through to the indicate of generation. This is why plants such as Hinkley Point with its very large capital letter outlay and long structure duration are proving and then hard to get off the ground. In deregulated markets like the Uk'south, there is increasing support for the concept of much smaller reactors which accept a lower upper-case letter outlay and a much speedier construction schedule largely within a factory rather than at site [2]. The generating cost benefits of large-scale plants and the well-developed nature of the filigree accept never fabricated them bonny. This is changing for a number of reasons but in particular the increase in the proportion of electricity generation from renewable and dispersed generation. The need for flexibility, rotational inertia (big turbo-generators) and load post-obit capability is also a contributory factor. Enquiry initiatives targeted to have fifty-fifty small-scale amounts off the capital cost and increase speed of deployment are likely to have a very significant bear upon on the overall toll of generating electricity and hence are the focus of contempo and time to come Introduce UK and BEIS calls for proposals.

2. Reactor systems in functioning and planned for early deployment in the UK

Contrary to many beliefs, nuclear reactor technology is non mature. Although over 11 000 reactor-years of experience has been gained to date and there are over 400 reactors operating worldwide, the vast bulk of the currently deployed reactor systems are merely second generation systems. Given the life cycle of these reactor systems, this ways that bringing new innovations to marketplace can accept many years. It also ways that while extending the lives of existing nuclear power plants tin can exist demonstrably the right thing to practice, at that place are many challenges more often than not associated with materials agreement and functioning. For case, the connected prophylactic operation of the Great britain's 14 advanced gas-cooled reactors is underpinned past detailed study of the evolution and behaviour of the graphite moderator material. In this type of reactor, the graphite acts every bit a structural component as well as a moderator for neutrons. A typical core has over 300 fuel channels and 12 layers of graphite bricks each 1 beingness 830 mm high and 460 mm in diameter and linked together past a keying organisation, which allows the structure to move. Radiolytic oxidation during operation results in weight loss and changes in density, physical and elastic backdrop and fast neutron irradiation causes changes in dimension and in concrete and mechanical properties. Relatively new techniques such as three-dimensional X-ray tomography are providing new insights into the 3-dimensional structure of nuclear graphite and enabling a more accurate analysis of concrete and mechanical properties [three].

Third generation systems are at present being offered in the market, notably for the pressurized water reactor (PWR) variant, Westinghouse's Avant-garde Passive k (AP1000) organization and Areva'south Evolutionary Pressurized H2o Reactor (EPR) system. Both of these are the culmination of developments over the past decade or so and offering evolutionary improvements on lite water systems. For instance, the AP1000 offers some very novel passive safety features that rely on natural processes such as gravity and convection, which eliminates the demand for active safety systems or operator invention in the event of an accident scenario. Also, the EPR reactor offers novel features such as molten core catcher and improved functioning characteristics, systems layout and safety control systems. This approach is based on using the experience gained to date in improving the overall safety of systems while making them simpler and more economical. As well the developments fabricated in boiling h2o reactor applied science with the Advanced Boiling Water Reactor offered past Hitachi-GE. All three of these systems volition exist deployed in the UK over the coming decade.

For light h2o reactors (LWRs) where the original design intent was for a lifetime of 30–40 years, the long-term behaviour of material could non be accurately determined at the outset. Designers did not necessarily know the fine points of the materials the fabricators were installing or sufficiently capeesh the effects of residual stresses and strains. Although new techniques allow us to predict and measure phenomena which were not even known in the early days of nuclear power, long term at present means 60–lxxx years non 40 and a global supply chain determines choice of fabricators. Understanding textile properties and quantifying and validating both the materials themselves and the processing route they have experienced, in extended conditions of temperature, environs and time, is vital. This ways that fundamental and applied materials research coupled with advanced manufacturing research form a key boulder of R&D proposals to underpin the Uk'due south nuclear industry strategy and build on the beginning fabricated by the research councils in 2012 in the NNUMAN New Nuclear Manufacturing initiative to drive footstep changes in manufacturing scientific discipline and technologies that will enable improved efficiency manufacturing for next generation civil nuclear reactors [4–6].

The programme targeted the adaption of manufacturing methods that, while deployed in other manufacturing segments, accept non been applied to nuclear systems because of regulatory and long life related risks. These processes, that are 'New to Nuclear', must be aimed at demonstrating proof of performance (due east.thou. for lx-year plant life) in order to provide products that meet the industry's very stringent performance needs. Considerable success has been achieved to date through R&D carried out at the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (NAMRC), in welding and joining technologies and machining surfacing and gradient structures [vii] and in exploring the furnishings of oxygen command in hot isostatically pressed stainless steel equally a means for nigh net shape manufacturing to reduce the number of welds present in primary pipe work [viii,nine].

three. Developments in fuel technology

In terms of studying fuel cladding, new tools and techniques non available to the original developers such as synchrotron radiation are now being used to study the reaction of zircaloy cladding with hydrogen. This will allow its operation in reactor, in storage and in disposal conditions to exist meliorate understood and predicted [10,11].

The fuel technology in use today is largely an development of that developed over fifty years agone in the early days of nuclear power just with very significant steps towards the aim of achieving high burnup. Fine tuning in both fabrication technology and the introduction of zirconium alloys containing modest additions of niobium has served the industry very well. Fuel is rarely an event in LWR nuclear power found functioning statistics and fuel is performing far more reliably compared with early days. The goal at present is to achieve fifty-fifty greater reliability (information technology is already better than 10⁻⁵) in combination with increased burnup. Development continues to exist evolutionary but operators and fuel manufacturers increasingly recognize that in social club to achieve substantially higher burnup there is a demand to develop a more mechanistic agreement of how alloy chemical science, microstructure and other materials aspects affect operation.

For advanced fuel evolution, e.yard. for high-temperature reactor (HTR) systems, coated particle fuel originally developed in the early on days of nuclear power is being re-examined [12]. Other initiatives aimed at increasing tolerance to mistake weather condition, and then-called 'blow tolerant fuels' (ATFs) are also being progressed, e.g. SiC-SiC composite cladding [13,14].

4. Materials issues in reactor systems

When it comes to materials issues and choices for the reactor system itself, many of the challenges faced by the designers and operators of the Generation III+ and Generation Iv plants are common to those faced in today's Generation II and Generation Three plants.

The 'new 'plant designs use validated materials functioning currently applied in existing plants to go along to encounter better than xc% capacity factor operations. Nickel alloys, particularly a variant known as Alloy 600, have been employed as corrosion-resistant heat transfer surfaces (e.k. steam generator tubing) or ferritic steel compatible reactor pressure vessel penetrations (due east.thousand. control rod bulldoze mechanism (CDRM) housings) from the manufacture's inception. Simply as early equally 1959, some French researchers had spotted stress corrosion cracking (SCC) issues, which were not properly recognized until some years later and still tin can cause problems today if operational vigilance is not sustained [xv].

It is at present known that all product forms of Blend 600 are susceptible to SCC perhaps due to an internal oxidation mechanism [xvi–eighteen]. Machining processes can increment the susceptibility as can the practices adopted past the material supplier in the melting and mechanical processes used.

R&D on Alloy 600 (SCC-susceptible) and Alloy 690 (improved SCC-resistance) has focused on SCC fissure growth rates, simply the vast majority of the in-service exposure is spent in the SCC 'initiation' regime; SCC propagation requires the existence of a viable crack, generally a hundred micrometres in extent. Recent work by Bertali, Scenini and Burke at the Academy of Manchester deals with understanding the precursor reactions and incubation phenomena involved with SCC initiation in Alloy 600 used in LWRs (PWRs); information technology is important considering the mechanistic understanding can then exist used to explore 'factors-of-comeback' for more SCC-resistant alloys (such every bit Blend 690—now used for PWRs)—equally the operating 'lifetimes' are proposed for more than than 60 years (approx. 80 years) [xix,20].

Piece of work undertaken by the University of Manchester in collaboration with the Universities of Birmingham and Oxford has examined the addition of platinum group metals to raise the corrosion resistance of stainless steel [21,22].

Development and application of novel in situ belittling manual electron microscope techniques in both gaseous and liquid environments to appraise localized environment–alloy interactions, particularly with respect to these important 'forerunner' reactions that can precede the initiation of environmentally assisted cracks in order to develop optimized materials and microstructures for improved operation in these environments represents one of the new innovative approaches existence used [23].

The goals to further extend the life of existing plants and to reduce the number of safety systems required in the postal service Fukushima era has led to a new focus on the development of ATFs. These are fuels which would exist able to tolerate the loss of agile cooling of the core for a longer period than existing fuels and too maintain or improve the fuel performance. Progress is being fabricated in the evolution of ATF cladding-candidate coating materials with the necessary strength; SiC is i case of a potential advanced clad which would retain its force to 1500°C and beyond but there are still many challenges to be overcome to enable it to be fabricated probably as a composite of radiation-resistant tough fibres.

All of the side by side generation of nuclear reactors (Generation-IV systems) have been previously studied to some extent and in many (although not all) cases experimental or epitome systems have been operated. However, even for those systems which have enjoyed the almost all-encompassing evolution, many of the Generation-4 goals cannot be met by systems which employ currently bachelor technology. Materials science, complex modelling of systems on a holistic basis and early detailed consideration of the science underpinning future waste direction are essential components of the evolving international R&D programmes every bit is engineering demonstration of central parts of each system. For example, fe oxides are important controls on radioelement behaviour in effluent treatment plants, the environs and geological disposal and the behaviour of neptunium can be predicted past agreement how it interacts with iron oxide particles [24].

High-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTRs), which have seen a resurgence of involvement globally, in fact had their genesis in the UK at Winfrith in Dorset with a reactor under OECD sponsorship chosen Dragon, these reactors take significant potential to be dual in mission as both electricity generators and providers of high-temperature heat to assist key chemical processes including electrolysis of hydrogen. Here, the materials challenges are associated with coupling a complex chemical process with the reactor—a challenge not dissimilar to that, nevertheless remaining for pre or postal service combustion carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) systems. China is investing significantly in HTRs as function of a future engineering platform and it is fair to say that the investments made may well bring this engineering science to commercial realization internationally faster than originally foreseen.

One new development in HTRs, which is likely to achieve commercial reality on an earlier timescale is the so-called U-battery (TM), a 5 MW micro reactor under evolution by URENCO, AMEC-FW, Atkins, Cammell Laird and Laing O'Rourke, targeted at remote communities and as an alternative to diesel fuel support for armed services and other secure installations. U-Bombardment is a concept which has been in evolution since 2008.

Its creation followed a challenge prepare by URENCO, which addressed the irresolute market need for energy, to design an economically viable, modular nuclear power generation organisation, which is intrinsically condom. Putting this into context, equally highlighted in the early part of the newspaper, large-scale nuclear reactors require loftier upper-case letter investment and heavily rely on the infrastructure of nuclear sites. Designers were therefore motivated to develop smaller scale reactors, specially for developing countries and remote areas off main power grids. Over a 3-year period, the Academy of Manchester (UK) and Delft University of Technology (NL) collaborated in an effort to design a unit that would work similar a battery. This would allow the modules to be manufactured in series and transported to the customer's site by rails, barge, truck, etc. and the upfront costs of the reactor would be significantly lower than a traditional large-sized reactor. The universities completed a feasibility written report in 2011 for the design of such a small, prophylactic modular nuclear power generation system—culminating in the U-Bombardment. The study concluded that there were opportunities to design a reactor for large industries or small towns, with those opportunities arising from modularity and standardization, simple blueprint, series fabrication of components and building multiple units at i site [25]. The U-Battery® has been developed based on currently mature HTR fuel blocks using standard TRISO particles every bit fuel. The reactor core of the U-Battery® is composed of hexagonal fuel blocks with reflectors. HTR fuel has been successfully demonstrated in various image or demonstration systems over the past xl years including the OECD's Dragon project in the UK, Fort St Vrain in the Usa, Japan's high-temperature test reactor at Tokai-mura, China's pebble bed HTR at Tsinghua and the HTR MODUL and Thorium HTR pebble bed type reactors in Germany.

v. Materials challenges in recycling

For the long term and looking at sustainability in a earth where fast neutron reactors play a pregnant role, much has been washed on the evolution of the reactor systems themselves internationally, only for fast reactors to succeed, recycling is besides essential. Materials issues remain pregnant but non insurmountable, just challenging! For the future, it will exist necessary to address the manufacturing needs of the next generation, 'Closing the Fuel Bicycle' plants that will use new materials for which no proven manufacturing methods be or where the merely international experience has been gained in prototype and sit-in facilities in some cases decades ago. Commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing is carried out in nitric acid solutions but the extreme radioactivity leads to unexpected chemical furnishings, which tin can be explained by better understanding of the interactions of radiations with nitric acid. [26,27]. 70 years later on their discovery, the complication and subtlety of the transuranium elements is however being revealed, partly due to the technical challenges of working with these radioactive materials, and partly due to the complexity of their physics and chemistry [28,29]. The need to ensure we have a good agreement will be fundamental not simply for successful development of advanced recycling technologies but too building confidence as nosotros arroyo selection of a site for a geological disposal facility. In geological disposal conditions, the cement backfill volition heighten the pH and, in these conditions, uranium can form stable nanoparticles which essentially alter its behaviour.

Agreement radiation effects on a much wider range of materials; corrosion operation of process plants e.g. stainless steel corrosion [xxx]; manufacture and validation of advanced fuels with novel matrices containing minor actinides (MAs) are just a few of the areas for future targeted research. The fabrication of fuels containing loftier quantities of MAs and possibly long-lived fission products, which volition necessitate remote procedures in heavily shielded facilities, poses many technical and economic challenges. Moreover, the waste forms arising from these new processes are not well characterized and new methods for managing these wastes will need to be adult. All of these activities will need to exist adult within the context of improving the economic performance of recycling, which volition phone call for significant improvements in materials and components reliability in lodge to improve institute reliability and reduce reanimation. This will crave strong links to the activities in advanced materials evolution and to the advanced modelling and simulation capabilities.

There is the potential for a large amount of cantankerous-cut enquiry on fast reactor fuels. Almost of the generation Four fast reactor fuels use plutonium in higher concentrations than previous fast reactors, typically around thirty% and there is a need to produce a new catalogue of both non-irradiated and irradiated mixed oxide fuel properties for Pu contents ranging from about 25 to 30%. Carbide and nitride and metal fuels are all potential candidates which offer improved thermal conductivity and hence lower fuel operating temperatures. Avant-garde metallic cladding materials such as oxide dispersion strengthened steels notwithstanding require much development, evaluation and qualification. Currently developed ceramic cladding materials, for awarding every bit ATFs in LWRs, are a prerequisite for gas-cooled fast reactors and these may offer meaning safety advantages as well for the liquid metallic-cooled fast reactors. Ceramic cladding is as well the route for lead-cooled fast reactors to operate at higher temperatures while avoiding the corrosion issues associated with operating metal-clad much above 500°C.

Leading nuclear nations internationally are engaged in R&D programmes to evaluate, develop and potentially deploy advanced closed cycles in the timeframe 2030–2060. Specifically, outside Europe there are programmes in USA, South korea (ROK), Japan, Red china, Bharat and Russian federation. While fuel bike R&D has fallen back in Japan following Fukushima, the other Asian countries are investing heavily and within the next two decades they will become global leaders in fuel recycling. Mainland china, India and Russia have multi-track programmes, that is: looking beyond thermal and fast reactor recycling; covering aqueous and pyrochemical technologies for nearer and longer term applications; integrating reprocessing and fuel re-manufacturing and building new facilities [31]. ROK is unusual in that, mainly because of not-technical reasons, they are focused solely on applying pyrochemical recycling engineering science. The U.s. also maintains a significant programme of fuel cycle research and development that includes avant-garde separations and waste forms for future closed cycles. Mostly, this is focused on aqueous separations but the Idaho National Laboratory continues to process celebrated metallic fast reactor fuel through a pocket-size pyro-processing establish and they take a bilateral organization with ROK on pyro-processing. Conventional reprocessing involves the separation of just the reprocessed uranium (Rep U) and plutonium for recycle. The fission products and rest transuranics (including uranium and plutonium impurities—although the amount of U & Pu sent to wastes from separations in reprocessing is very modest indeed. TRansUranic in loftier-level waste are dominated past Np, Am, Cm) are sent to the vitrified loftier-level waste (VHLW) stream for interim storage and eventual geological disposal. Partitioning and transmutation involves the separation of MA species, usually Np, Am and Cm for recycle [32]. The MAs can exist recycled homogeneously as a modest component of nuclear fuel or heterogeneously in the grade of target fuels. Np and Am can be transmuted very finer in thermal or fast neutron spectrum systems, either by an initial neutron capture event, followed past a second neutron capture effect that causes fission, or by direct fission following the initial neutron capture. Cm is more difficult to transmute effectively and is likewise more hard to handle in fuel fabrication. Overall P&T consists of 4 steps all of which are rich areas for research going forward: separation of the MA content at reprocessing either as private products or equally co-products; fabrication of MA bearing homogeneous or heterogeneous fuels [33,34]; transmutation of MA begetting fuels in a fission system and potentially, multi-wheel reprocessing of MA bearing fuels. P&T reduces the inventory of MAs in VHLW and can atomic number 82 to reduced heat load and radiotoxicity of the VHLW stream [35].

6. Thorium-based fuels and fuel cycle

The past l years of the nuclear manufacture have been dominated heavily by the uranium fuel cycle, nigh without exception other than for several exam programmes. The uranium fuel cycle at present represents a commercially demonstrated fuel route, deployed worldwide with all of the commercial ability stations using uranium every bit its source of fuel. Therefore, whatever future culling to this technically mature, proven, commercial fuel cycle would need to demonstrate clear notable benefits over the existing options in order for information technology to be adopted due east.1000. benefits associated with the technology, economics, condom and security, environmental performance and sustainability. The thorium bicycle is oft cited every bit such an option just the benefits are ofttimes overstated and the challenges underestimated [36].

The thorium fuel wheel can be deployed in both, a once-through fuel cycle or fuel recycling. The once-through fuel cycle is simpler technologically, but merely offers very limited benefits in terms of uranium utilization. Full recycle with Th-232/U-233 offers an unlimited resources, but likewise poses many technological challenges, especially reprocessing and fuel manufacture.

In 1996, the Euratom Science and Applied science Committee provided a formal Opinion STC(96)D18, in the context of the employ of Thursday in the accelerator based Energy Amplifier proposed past Professor Carlo Rubbia [37].

An all-encompassing annex (included as Annex A to this stance) was provided to the main STC Opinion STC(96)D18 which detailed all the problems and challenges which needed to be addressed before the Th based fuel cycle could be brought to industrial scale deployment.

Since then simply modest investment has been undertaken in the European union. Nigh developments have occurred as a result of individual Member States research funding inside the Academy sector. Internationally however extensive initiatives have been undertaken specially in Bharat and China. In the one-time case because of the availability in India of extensive Th reserves and in the latter case because of their determination to significantly accelerate Molten Salt systems in which Th may play a significant role. The World Nuclear Association routinely reports on developments internationally (http://world wide web.globe-nuclear.org/info/Electric current-and-Future-Generation/Thorium). However, the paradigm shift that could occur with deployment of molten salt reactors (MSRs) using in-cycle recycle means that Th should be considered in this light from an R&D perspective.

7. Molten table salt systems

Significant international activity has taken place over the final decade on revisiting the potential of MSRs for the future and has culminated recently in major initiatives in China, India and Russia with smaller initiatives in a number of European countries led by both University teams and past groups sponsored past high net worth individuals convinced of the potential of MSRs. Inside the MSR technology platform (in that location are a multiplicity of designs), there is too a pregnant Th component.

In common with other generic MSR systems in which the fuel is incorporated in the molten salt coolant, molten salt fast reactor has theoretical advantages over conventional solid fuel reactors. These include the removal of any requirement to fabricate solid fuel elements and meet all the associated mechanical quality requirements; the obviation of fuel endurance problems that allows the fuel salt to remain in core indefinitely; the relaxation of fuel thermal limits; the elimination of the conventional out-of-cadre fissile inventory and the possibility of online fuel processing.

Unresolved problems include: the command of corrosion in principal circuit components, including core vessel, pipework, heat exchangers, pumps and other in-core components in the high-temperature table salt environment; the control of fission products and transuranics within the master excursion fuel table salt and the abstention of active crud build-up on primary circuit components; development of a satisfactory system for processing fuel common salt and extracting fission products; the immobilization of fission products extracted from the primary circuit in an adequately safe form and its eventual immobilization for transport and disposal; demonstration of safe transient characteristics of cores with very low effective delayed neutron fractions; evolution of a safety case for a very anarchistic system and addressing the unique safeguarding challenges.

There are R&D activities on MSR in the EU, Switzerland, Russian Federation, the USA and Asia, especially Mainland china, although the latter two are targeting their initial efforts on molten common salt-cooled reactors rather than on molten salt fuelled. The MSR has besides attracted many minor showtime-up companies normally sponsored by high internet worth individuals and there are competing designs in Canada, USA and U.k. which are nevertheless at the conceptual development stage and which are attempting to secure regime back up. Notwithstanding, it is likely that activities in Communist china will overtake any others as they are pressing ahead with an MSR demonstrator.

The long term then presents a long and challenging journey to deployment of avant-garde adjacent generation reactor systems and fuel cycles; then returning to the most term and the detail issues associated with small modular reactors where nosotros may see deployment in the UK in the next decade alongside the starting time wave of large Generation 3 LWRs. In choosing the design(due south) which may be deployed it volition be essential to define exactly what the almost of import attributes should be, whether it is first to grid, maximum opportunities for Uk manufacturing jobs, cheapest electricity cost or maximum possible generating capacity for the sites available especially in the shorter term. Unlike attributes are likely to lead to very different organization choices. At that place are many ideas beingness advocated: some with more than substance behind them than others. To ensure success, whatever organisation in the pipeline for serious consideration volition have to have a wealth of verification and validation data and testify from all-encompassing analysis of materials properties and performance underpinning novel manufacturing processes. Welding technology non used to engagement for large components is but 1 of the many aspects receiving pregnant attention at the NAMRC.

Competing interests

I have no competing interests.

Funding

The author is an unremunerated Visiting Professor. There has been no funding associated with the training of the manuscript.

Acknowledgements

The writer wishes to acknowledge the contributions of Professor Francis Livens of the University of Manchester and Professor Andrew Sherry Chief Scientist of the National Nuclear Laboratory for informative discussions during the course of the manuscript's preparation.

Author profile

Sue Ion is Chairman of the Nuclear Innovation Research Advisory Board gear up in January 2014 and a member of the ONR Independent Advisory Panel. She represents the Great britain on a number of international review and oversight committees for the nuclear sector including the Euratom Science and Technology Committee, which she chairs, having been reappointed in April 2014 for a 2nd term. She is the only not-The states member of the US Section of Free energy'southward Nuclear Energy Advisory Committee on which she has served since 2005. She was the UK'due south representative on the IAEA Standing Informational Group on Nuclear Energy 2000–2007.

Sue Ion holds a Visiting Professorship in the Department of Materials at Imperial College and is Deputy Chair of the Lath of Governors of the University of Manchester.

She was a member of the UK Council for Science and Technology from 2004 to 2011. She was a member of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Enquiry Council from 1994 to 2001, a member of Council for EPSRC between 2005 and 2010 and chaired the Fusion Informational Board for the Research Councils from 2006 to 2012. She served on the DECC Scientific Advisory Group 2010–2014.

Sue Ion was Vice President and Member of Quango of the Royal University of Engineering between 2002 and 2008 and has chaired a number of the Academy'south key standing committees. Sue Ion has been involved in energy matters generally since 2004 and chaired the steering grouping which oversaw the Inquiry Councils' International Review of Free energy Research 2010–2011.

Dr Ion was BNFL's Group Manager of Technology 1992–2006 responsible for approximately 1000 staff in 5 UK locations including the active laboratories at Sellafield, Springfields and Berkley. During the period the visitor owned Westinghouse from 1997, she was responsible for functional oversight of the Grouping's technology portfolio including all R&D investment in new reactor systems.

Footnotes

An invited perspective to mark the election of the author to the fellowship of the Imperial Society in 2016.

© 2017 The Author(due south)

Published by the Majestic Society. All rights reserved.

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Source: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspa.2016.0815