About the Project
Applications are now open for one graduate studentship on the Mechanical Analysis of Sludge using Robotics. This Lancaster University PhD will be based at the National Nuclear Laboratory’s non-active site in Workington, working alongside other students from Lancaster, Manchester and Liverpool Universities.
CENTRE FOR INNOVATIVE NUCLEAR DECOMMISSIONING
The Centre is a partnership between four universities, Sellafield Ltd and the National Nuclear Laboratory. Its mission is to innovate and deliver future engineering leaders, supporting the UK’s nuclear decommissioning programme in west Cumbria, i.e. Sellafield. The centre is located at the National Nuclear Laboratory’s state-of-the-art facilities in Workington, Cumbria, which is on the edge of the Lake District National Park. The student will be embedded within a combined industry/academic team based at this site and will focus on innovative solutions to a complex challenge, in this case involving the development of robotic systems, sensing and instrumentation.
Sellafield, with an ageing demographic, is currently spending around £2bn a year and has a programme that lasts in excess of 100 years that will provide opportunities and challenges for high quality engineers for many years to come.
TECHNICAL DETAILS ON THIS STUDENTSHIP
The project involves the design and development of a robotic system which will be used to investigate the mechanical properties of the sludge in-situ within storage tanks on the Sellafield site. Due to the highly active nature of the expected material, sophisticated electrical solutions are unlikely to survive long enough to be useful. Instead, mechanical interrogative techniques will be investigated wherever possible. For the same reasons, a ‘deploy and forget’ strategy will be considered for the deposal of the device itself. Initially, this robotic design will be tested within the non-active rig at Workington, although it would be anticipated that at some point, testing within a hard radiological environment would be required too.
It would be anticipated that the target task could be achieved in one of several ways – for example using a stand-alone wireless robot or a snake-type device which could enter the tank and transmit the data to the operator via an umbilical cord which can be severed without endangering operators. The intent is to ascertain coarse mechanical properties such as shear properties (to help determine how liquid/solid the sludge is and the related viscosity/shear modulus/yield stress), volume fraction of suspended and total solids, hardness and potentially other physical characteristics as required. It is also expected that the sensor system will measure levels of radiological activity (probably utilising scintillators) and utilise impedance sensors to ascertain the metal/ionic content of the sludge or rheological sensors monitoring the flow properties. Due to the hazardous and complex nature of the environment that the system is expected to operate in, resilience is important. This will be achieved through the use of simple mechanical design and also through redundancy. By using multiple sensors and comparators, failure due to high activity levels can be detected and compensated for so that reliable data can be collected for longer.
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
Candidates should be highly motivated, possess the ability to work autonomously and have a good undergraduate degree in a relevant subject related to Engineering. Also, for security reasons, you must either be a UK citizen or a European Union national. The nature of this programme means that we must comply with the Government’s protective security procedures. That means that all students will be subject to a base line standard security check.
OTHER DETAILS
This is a 3-year studentship. The exact starting date can vary according to candidate availability. It pays a non-taxable enhanced bursary. Please contact either [Email Address Removed] or [Email Address Removed] for more information and details of how to apply.
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