Thursday 17 March 2016

For the past three years NNL has presented the BEST Award and associated Mike Lawrence Medal, to the author of the Best External Scientific or Technical article published during the previous year. 

For the BEST Award 2016, papers published in 2015 were considered and the BEST Award Winner and recipient of the Mike Lawrence medal is Paul Styman. NNL would like to congratulate Paul on his paper titled:

Post-irradiation annealing of Ni-Mn-Si-enriched clusters in a neutron-irradiated RPV steel weld using Atom Probe Tomography.

Co-authors J.M. Hyde, D. Parfitt, K. Wilford, M.G. Burke, C.A. English and P. Efsin.

Journal of Nuclear Materials

The winner was chosen following an exhaustive shortlisting and judging process. A total of five papers were shortlisted this year. They were chosen from nine papers entered into the competition that featured an NNL employee as lead author. 

Papers were judged on the following criteria:– Technical and scientific content– Coherency of argument– Innovation and impact of science Each of the five shortlisted papers were of a very high standard. However, the BEST Judging Panel felt that Paul’s winning paper had the edge. In particular, the judges felt that it possessed very high quality technical content including the development of innovative methods of data analysis and a description of annealing at the apex of a needle for a few minutes at ~500°C, which is most impressive. The coherency of argument was strong and well supported by data and conclusions were relevant. The innovation and impact of the science featured in the paper was very high, including the demonstration of the relationship between macroscopic properties and microstructure and the mechanistic insight on formation of ‘late blooming phases’ which is a key issue for Plant Life Extension (PLEX). This year’s BEST runners-up are:Robin BoothbySANS examination of irradiated RPV steel welds during in-situ annealing Co-authors J.M. Hyde, H. Swan, D. Parfitt, K. Wilford and P. Lindner Journal of Nuclear MaterialsMike Carrott:Distribution of plutonium, americium and interfering fission products between nitric acid and a mixed organic phase of TODGA and DMDOHEMA in kerosene and implications for the design of the “EURO-GANEX” process Co-authors Andreas Geist, Xavier Hères, Steve Lange, Rikard Malmbeck, Manuel Miguirditchian, Giuseppe Modolo, AndreasWilden and Robin Taylor Hydrometallurgy JournalEwan MaddrellThe influence of glass composition on crystalline phase stability in glass-ceramic wasteforms Co-authors Stephanie Thornber and Neil C. Hyatt.Journal of Nuclear MaterialsMartin Metcalfe, for the paper:Radiocarbon mass balance for a Magnox nuclear power station Co-author R.W. Mills Annals of Nuclear Energy Paul will be presented with his award and the Mike Lawrence Medal at this year’s NNL Technical Conference being held in Manchester on Thursday 28th April. He will present his paper to the conference. The runners-up have also been invited to the Technical Conference.Winners of the other BEST Awards 2016 will be announced shortly. These are:BEST Award for best journal paper from an NNL – University collaborationBEST Award for best first publication since joining NNL (for all individuals who have published for the first time since joining the business) The BEST Award Coordinators would like to thank everyone in NNL who submitted articles to journals and who published papers during 2015. NNL aims to increase its publication record through the issue of articles to peer-reviewed academic journals.Everyone is encouraged to seek publication of their work.