Decommissioning, Immobilisation and Storage
soluTIons for NuClear wasTe InVEntories

Structural Integrity

DISTINCTIVE is a multi-disciplinary collaboration of 10 universities and 3 key industry partners from across the UK’s civil nuclear sector. 

Structural Integrity

Structural Integrity

This theme addresses the challenge of ageing nuclear infrastructure, and how to ensure the continued safety of the workforce involved in nuclear decommissioning and management. The aim is to develop reliable systems for nuclear infrastructure characterisation, restoration and preservation.

 

Work Packages

  • Physical ground barriers for in situ contaminant containment.
  • Remote crack detection, infrastructure, health prediction and building preservation.
  • Real-time management of autonomous decommissioning systems.

Theme Objectives

  • Develop in situ ground barriers as a ‘second-skin’ around structures to prevent subsurface radionuclide migration.
  • Smart solutions for pond crack detection, infrastructure health prediction and building preservation suitable for retrofitting.
  • Autonomous robot systems with increased functionality coordinated through a CAD-based real-time management systems.

Projects

Autonomous systems for nuclear decommissioning in extreme radiation environments

The unique capabilities of the Nuclear Engineering team at Dalton Cumbrian Facility and its relationships with Cumbrian SMEs will be used to develop and to test radiation hardened materials…

Crack sealing and water transport

This PhD project will focus on understanding the effect of cracking on water flow through built structures (mainly concrete)…

In-situ ground contaminant containment (Physical barrier)

Current research at Strathclyde (Biogeochemical Applications in Nuclear Decommissioning and Waste Disposal, EPSRC consortium, EP/G063699/1)…

Nano-fracturing in cement

This project will focus on understanding the chemistry and mechanics of fracture nucleation in chemically complex materials and will work towards incorporation of novel self-healing technologies…

Production of real-time segmented as-built CAD models for the planning and execution of remote and human intervention tasks

This project will develop methods for instant real-time 3D as-built CAD modelling of nuclear plant, including segmentation of the scene into a collection of salient objects…

Monitoring of moisture and chloride in contaminated storage structures

This PhD project is aimed at the development of advanced sensor technologies to monitor/measure moisture and chloride in built structures (mainly concrete)…

The Impact of Recycled Concrete Fines on the Engineering Performance of Cementitious Infill

Simulating Radiation Damage in Cement

Many nuclear waste forms are encapsulated in cement. The two main reasons for this are that it is inexpensive and easy to work with…

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