Use of recycled concrete materials from nuclear decommissioning for sustainable nuclear waste management

What would you do with the vast amount of concrete wastes arising from decommissioning of closed nuclear facilities? This project focus on the recycling of such materials. This will allow us not only to reduce the amount of wastes going to landfill but also to tackle one of the most difficult issues in our society – nuclear waste management – from the angle of sustainability.

The UK nuclear industry is also currently seeking new materials for conditioning of nuclear wastes, as the conventional cementitious materials may not be readily available in the future. This project, therefore, may provide the solution to this challenging question.

We are one of the largest group in the UK working on cementitious materials, also a part of Immobilisation Science Laboratory; the only UK group dedicate to the nuclear waste management. If you are interested in sustainable use of materials, reduction of CO2, and innovative waste management, we would like to welcome you!

We would like to recruit a graduate with a first or high 2.1 class honours degrees with a background in materials science, chemistry, chemical engineering, potentially civil engineering or earth sciences. Experience in materials science, especially in cement or concrete would be ideal, but experiences in other oxide materials and minerals are also beneficial. The project may involve variety of characterisation techniques, e.g. XRD, SEM, FT-IR, TG, also solution analysis with ICP-OES and IC. We are looking for someone who can think, come up with own ideas and work hard to prove them.

Informal inquiries can be made to Dr Hajime Kinoshita at [Email Address Removed]

Applications can be made using the information on this page https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/postgraduate/phd/apply/applying