SPECIAL REPORT | DALTON INSTITUTE
Above: The UK’s Low Level Waste Repository in Cumbria In practical terms it meant that when BNFL set up the
Centre for Radiochemistry Research it invested £2m ($2.6m) over five years. “On the strength of that commitment the university put in matching funding. So suddenly you have a decent platform. If BNFL had said you will have £2 million this year and nothing next, we would have used most of the £2 million because we would have had to spend it in the year we had it and then you would have had a massive hangover. Significant cash is important but so is duration.” He explains that it was fundamental to allowing
researchers to be appointed: “The university had enough confidence, with funding for five years, to bring people in, let them establish themselves, and to convince itself that they would be self-sustaining as academics beyond the end of that five-year period. Subject to performance they would be normal tenured academics.” He adds, “There is a model that you grow something, you network it, and now we have done it several times and we have networked all those together and that is giving us the horsepower”. He agrees that academia and industry differ in the way they spend their money and how they look for a return and there is a need to align those two things. “Often the funding comes in for projects. One of the ways I look at it is that we have the squad and we are asked to pick a team from the squad to deal with a particular project. We can dip
into nuclear graphite, nuclear fuels, corrosion, chemistry, thermal hydraulics – you can go around the network and build a team to respond to an opportunity.” Livens adds that the group has to understand how its
strengths differ from industry. It’s not an option to solve a problem on the process line on the day, for example. “Universities are not very good at being quick. Realistically we are not as flexible as the commercial supply chain. I would say we need 12 months and preferably closer to three years – not immediate problem solving,” although some institutions are good at being responsive. As for problems along the way, he references consistency
again: “If the funding tap is turned off, capability drops as people take on other work.” Now Livens is looking forward to opportunities arising
from a shift in the UK’s decommissioning structure. “There are some really interesting things from the reorganisation of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority over the last few years.” This government-owned body with responsibility for closed sites was previously structured as a number of site licence companies “which meant different organisations with different drivers”. A new contracted structure offers “big opportunities to optimise things like the whole waste life cycle, from retrieval to treatment, packaging, storage and disposal.” Watch this space. ■
Right:
BNFL initiated the Dalton Institute when it set up Centre for Radiochemistry Research by investing £2m ($2.6m) over five years
48 | February 2024 |
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