A WARRINGTON-based scientist is to lead UK research into materials for new nuclear reactors capable of powering a carbon net-zero economy.
Prof John Stairmand, technical director, Technology and Cyber Solutions, with international engineering giant Jacobs, who have an office at Birchwood Park, will co-chair the Technical Advisory Board of SINDRI – Synergistic utilization of INformatics and Data centRic Integrity engineering – a government and private sector-funded partnership of academic and industrial experts.
SINDRI’s task is to develop digital technology for the design, fabrication, and in-service assessment of nuclear power plant components.
“SINDRI is bringing together the UK’s foremost experts in materials, manufacturing and data science for the nuclear sector,” said Prof Stairmand. “By pioneering innovations that will make the nuclear power stations of the future safer and cheaper to build, operate and decommission, the project aims to make world-leading advances in structural integrity and materials science, and so take a huge step towards a net-zero carbon economy.”
Prof Stairmand is the industry representative on the Technical Advisory Board while his co-chair, Fionn Dunne, Chair in Micromechanics at Imperial College London, is the academic representative.
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng recently announced that SINDRI had been awarded £2.4 million from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation, matched by £3.4 million from EDF as the lead industrial partner.
The consortium of academic and industrial experts is led by the University of Bristol in partnership with EDF, the University of Manchester, Imperial College London and the Science and Technology Facilities Council.
The five-year research program will create seven new research roles, and incorporate eighteen PhD studentships, one of which will be funded by Jacobs at the University of Manchester.
In addition to the funding from EPSRC and EDF, the project has received around £2 million worth of support from the universities and other project stakeholders, including Jacobs, National Nuclear Laboratory, United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, Henry Royce Institute, and the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre.
The partnership aims to support a transformation in the nuclear sector by developing an overarching digital framework, encompassing a suite of models that simulate the behavior of materials from their entry into service through to their end of life. The research will find ways to improve efficiency and reduce costs by moving from manual to digital processes of design, build and operation.
This framework to be developed by the Partnership will be incorporated into EDF’s federated simulation ecosystem of multi-physics Digital Twins, replacing current manual processes. EDF, the operator of the UK’s fleet of nuclear power stations, is currently building a new plant at Hinkley Point C in Somerset and is in negotiations with the Government to build another in Sizewell, Suffolk.
With $14 billion in revenue and a talent force of approximately 55,000, Jacobs provides a full spectrum of professional services including consulting, technical, scientific and project delivery for the government and private sector.
