£3.5m grant for UK nuclear research

A UK university has received a £3.5 million grant to build a new custom-designed facility which will research and develop nuclear materials. It was awarded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences […]

A UK university has received a £3.5 million grant to build a new custom-designed facility which will research and develop nuclear materials.

It was awarded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to the University of Huddersfield.

The funding will be used for the university’s second ‘Microscope and Ion Accelerator for Materials Investigations’ (MIAMI) facility which it claims will “have greater research potential”.

The initial MIAMI facility was a tool for researching the materials which are best for withstanding irradiation in nuclear reactors.

MIAMI II will look into different aspects of nuclear energy, including the effects of radiation damage on materials.

The development will have a microscope with twin ion beams which will look into the impact on the materials structure as well as the internal damage.

Professor Stephen Donnelly, head of the research group said: “With our existing MIAMI, we can investigate these two issues sequentially.

“But that isn’t the 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.”

MIAMI II is expected to be built within the next 12 months.

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