National Nuclear Laboratory

James Kennedy

  • Lancaster University – Department of Engineering
  • Academic Supervisors: Colin Boxall, James Taylor
  • Industrial Supervisor: Anthony Banford
  • Project timeline: Oct 2017 – Sep 2021
  • Research areas of interest: Actinide Chemistry, Ceramic Surface Chemistry, Ceramic Mineralogy
  • Academic Qualifications: Chemistry BSc (Hons), Physics and Technology of Nuclear Reactors MSc
  • University profileLinkedIn page

Decontamination of Plutonium contaminated brick surfaces

I am a PhD researcher currently in my third year. My research looks into the development of a chemical based decontamination process for decommissioning plutonium contaminated legacy brick structures. The ability to remove a large proportion of the contamination from the structure significantly reduces the complexity of demolition and disposal of material. My research will develop a non-active simulant contamination that will be used instead of plutonium in order to determine the effects that the contamination has regarding the mineralogy and surface chemistry of the brick. This information will then be used to develop a decontamination method/ solution for the removal of the plutonium.

Outputs

Conference poster: Kennedy, J, Boxall, C, Banford, A (2019), decontamination of Plutonium Contaminated Brick Surfaces. Poster presented at TRANSCEND Consortium First Annual Meeting 2019, Bath, United Kingdom.