Nuclear and space technology research given £3.5m boost
A GRANT of £3.5m means that construction on a research facility at the University of Huddersfield is set to begin.
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council has invested in the multi-million pound centre which will research the analysis of nuclear materials and the development of space technology, ensuring the safety of a new generation of reactors.
Scientists at the University will then be able to play a part in the development of space technology.
The EPSRC announced the grant to the research group headed by the University of Huddersfield’s Professor Stephen Donnelly, who developed the existing facility named MIAMI – standing for Microscope and Ion Accelerator for Materials Investigations.
Unique in the UK, and one of only two such facilities in Europe, it is a combined electron microscope and ion beam accelerator. It uses ion bombardment as a safe, non-radioactive means of simulating the effects of radiation damage on materials.
Now Professor Donnelly and his team have won the funding to construct MIAMI II, which will have even greater research potential.
Professor Donnelly said: “With our existing MIAMI, we can investigate these two issues sequentially.
“But that isn’t same as what the neutrons are doing simultaneously. So MIAMI II, with a second beam line, will mean that we are more completely simulating the real effect of nuclear reactors.”
The new machine will also be much more versatile than its predecessor and have enhanced analytical capability, continued Professor Donnelly, who anticipates that MIAMI II will lead to research collaborations with scientists from around the world.
“Any vehicle, or anything sent anywhere into space – whether into earth orbit or interstellar space – is being bombarded by energetic particles. So there are potential applications for MIAMI II in that area.”
MIAMI II will be constructed within 12 months and fully-operational soon after that. The award of £3.5 million is to pay for the manufacture of the equipment and the grant application was ranked second out of more than 180 that were considered by an EPSRC panel.
Professor Donnelly and his team have consolidated their leading position in nuclear material and nanomaterial research by winning a succession of EPSRC awards, including recent grants of £1 million and £400,000 that will lead to the appointment of several postdoctoral researchers.
