Materials Performance Centre news and events
New Director for the MPC - 27th June 2011
We are pleased to announce the appointment of Professor M. Grace Burke as the new Director of the Materials Performance Centre, in the School of Materials.
Professor Grace Burke is internationally-recognised in the fields of advanced microstructual characterisation, electron microscopy and irradiation embrittlement. She comes to Manchester from the Bettis Laboratory in Pittsburgh, where she was a Consultant in Materials Technology.
Professor Andrew Sherry, Director of the Dalton Nuclear Institute, said, “We are extremely pleased to welcome Professor Burke to Manchester.
“Professor Burke brings an international reputation for the use of advanced analytical techniques to understand materials issues in nuclear applications.
“Her appointment as Director of the MPC will strengthen the University's capability to support industry and research councils, and will further enhance the Materials Performance Centre’s status as a centre of excellence in this field.”
Professor Burke said, “I am delighted to be joining the MPC, and as Director I am looking forward to further developing and expanding our university/industry research partnerships.
“I aim to continue the Centre’s advancement of fundamental understanding of the behaviour of materials in power generation systems.”
- For further details please contact mpc@manchester.ac.uk
MPC Conference - 18th January 2010
On the 18th January 2010 the MPC will be hosting an in-house conference for its researchers. Taking place at the University's Staff House conference venue, this will be a full day of talks and poster presentations by both staff and students, to further encourage and facilitate collaborative working across the MPC's research areas.
- For further details please contact freyja.peters@manchester.ac.uk
PERFORM 60 - 29th - 31st March 2010
The MPC will be hosting 2010's PERFORM 60 meeting in March. PERFORM 60 is a European Commission initiative looking at the prediction of the effects of radiation for reactor pressure vessel and in-core materials using multi-scale modelling: 60 years foreseen plant lifetime.
- For further details please contact freyja.peters@manchester.ac.uk
British Energy Graphite Research Meeting 2010 - 13th April 2010 (TBC)
For the fourth consecutive year, the MPC will be playing host to the British Energy Graphite Research Meeting. This annual meeting aims to disseminate current graphite research, particularly that supported by British Energy.
- For further details please contact freyja.peters@manchester.ac.uk
MUZIC - 15th - 16th April 2010
In April the MPC will be hosting a two-day meeting of MUZIC, an EPSRC-funded consortium to research the mechanistic understanding of corrosion of zirconium.
- For further details please contact freyja.peters@manchester.ac.uk
Collaboration Agreement with Serco
In addition to recent partnerships with EdF and British Energy Generation Ltd, the MPC is delighted that a Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between the University of Manchester and Serco.
The collaboration will be in the areas of fracture technology, structural integrity, corrosion, inspection and nuclear graphite and any other areas of mutual interest. This is already providing a fruitful platform for new initiatives between the MPC and Serco and is helping to strengthen the existing links which are in place. We are currently collaborating with Serco in the areas of structural integrity, corrosion and EAC and nuclear graphite.
A number of Serco staff have been appointed as visiting scientists at the MPC and Professor Andrew Sherry and Dr Martin Goldthorpe are providing technical input into a number of industrially based projects. Serco are supporting university research at PhD, Eng D and RA level.
The collaboration will be formally launched at an Open Technical Forum meeting to be held on 7th November 2007. The Forum will disseminate key developments in the measurement, modelling and assessment of residual stresses in component design and operation. For further details contact Dr Jane Deakin.
Nuclear Graphite Group Gains Active Facilities
The Nuclear Graphite Research Group working within the MPC has successfully commissioned a laboratory for the examination of low radioactive nuclear graphite samples, located in The Mill. The facility will be used to examine the treatment of small active graphite samples taken from both UK and European nuclear reactors supporting the work of both PhD and Postdoctoral projects.
Presently under refurbishment, the active graphite laboratory will house state of the art facilities for the analysis and treatment of irradiated graphite samples, which will include a high temperature laboratory tube furnace capable of temperatures up to 1200°C, liquid scintillation counting for analysis and to calculate decontamination factors, an active glove box, fume hoods and a low temperature oven.
Recently the NGRG has successfully undertaken the first active X-ray tomography experiment at the Materials Science Centre to validate the structural and radiochemical data from French EDF graphite supplied via Serco Assurance at Risley. The group's focus is to gain understanding of the relationship between graphite microstructure and properties providing new input to support graphite safety and performance in reactors and to assess decommissioning options.
For more information contact Professor Barry J Marsden (barry.marsden@manchester.ac.uk) or Dr Abbie Jones (abbie.jones@manchester.ac.uk)
Nuclear engineering doctorate scheme is awarded
We are delighted that The University of Manchester has been awarded the new EPSRC Nuclear Engineering Doctorate Centre which will be led by the Dalton Nuclear Institute in partnership with Imperial College. The technical scope of the Centre will be broad, but includes "materials" as one of six key themes.
The Nuclear EngD will be a four-year postgraduate qualification aimed at the UK's best young research engineers. Its aim is to equip them with the skills needed to take on senior roles within the nuclear Industry. As part of the programme, students will complete a Management Diploma from Manchester Business School.
Professor Andrew Sherry, Director of the new Nuclear EngD Centre, says: "The EngD is a radical alternative to the traditional PhD, being better suited to the needs of industry, and providing a more vocationally oriented doctorate in engineering." Up to seventy-five percent of the EngD will be based in industry through partnerships with companies including Nexia Solutions, British Energy, and Rolls Royce. There will be up to 12 projects awarded per year across the full technical scope. The first intake of students onto the EngD will be in September 2006. Those interested in being involved as an academic supervisor of research engineers should contact The Nuclear EngD Centre for further information, Nucengd@manchester.ac.uk
Partnership agreement with British Energy
A partnership agreement has been signed with British Energy Generation Ltd. The MPC can now look forward to closer collaboration with BE in the areas of "graphite, corrosion, residual stress measurement and damage characterisation, fracture mechanics (including local approach), creep continuum modelling and Computational Fluid Dynamics and such other areas of mutual interest as may be agreed between the Parties from time to time".
This new partnership is a significant development for the MPC and will help us to work closely with BE to address challenging materials issues for operating reactors. A formal launch event took place on 28th September at the Manchester Conference Centre, the day included presentations from British Energy on "Why university links and technical materials challenges?", from Nexia Solutions on "University Research Alliances" and from the MPC on "Manchester 2015, Nuclear, Materials and Engineering" and "New Approaches for the Study of Materials in Extreme Environments".
MPC – EdF collaboration agreed
The Materials Performance Centre and Electricité de France (EdF) have signed a Research and Development Agreement, initially covering a period of three years. The collaboration will be in respect of corrosion and related topics, and it is expected to lead to a number of research studentships and other projects.
The Materials and Mechanics of Component Department at EdF R&D, les Renardieres, will be the main EdF partner in the collaboration. The department was set up in January 2002 by the merging of two precursor departments. Its task is to carry out the investigations required to meet the safety, reliability and productivity requirements of industrial installations in the fields of materials and thermomechanics. Its activity covers all energy production means, the management of nuclear waste (storage, disposal, transmutation), and the support to the business services of the EdF group. 90% of the activity of the department is oriented towards the nuclear field.
Several exchanges have already been held between staff of the two institutions. Projects proposed initially are primarily related to environmentally-assisted cracking of nickel-base alloys in reactor environments, modelling of corrosion processes and the development of unified models of oxidation. EdF have very comprehensive facilities for high-temperature and pressure testing, and it is expected that students working in the MPC will make use of these, with periods being spent in France.