The National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) brings together a world-class nuclear research staff and facilities. The NNL is a unique resource constituting the bulk of the UK's remaining national nuclear research capability and all of the civil nuclear research facilities. The company comprises ~700 highly qualified staff based at six locations around the United Kingdom, operates both active and non-active research facilities and provides specialist technical and consulting services to a range of UK and overseas customers including the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, MoD, UKAEA, British Energy, Magnox Electric Ltd., and Sellafield Ltd.
The National Nuclear Laboratory provides a range of independent technology services to support operating nuclear plants as well as decommissioning and clean-up activities and scientific research organisations. These services include the ability to accommodate and conduct both active and inactive work at its facilities.
The mission of the NNL includes: to be an international centre of excellence in nuclear research and development, playing a vital role in cleaning up the UK's nuclear waste legacy and contributing to the programme of nuclear new build; to create a platform for UK and internationally funded R&D; to safeguard the UK's high-tech nuclear expertise, facilities and skills; to support the UK's strategic nuclear research and development requirements; to operate world class facilities that underpin nuclear research undertaken by UK and international customers; to safeguard and enhance key skills that are essential to deliver the UK's nuclear policy; to deliver value for customers through the provision of first class science-based solutions; and to develop the UK market for the provision of nuclear research.
Scientific and technical personnel involved
- Robert Mills: Technical specialist with 23 years experience in the area of nuclear data and reactor modelling underpinning inventory code development. During this time he has supported planning and operation of UK reprocessing plants and contributed evaluations, nuclear data files and validation to the JEFF (Joint Evaluated Fission and Fusion file) nuclear data project of the OECD/NEA. This includes producing the fission yield data for the JEF-2.2 and JEFF-3 files. He is currently chair of the JEFF subgroup on decay data and fission yields and an active member of the UK Nuclear Science forum (of which he was secretary for 10 years). He held short-term contract research positions within the University of Birmingham and the Nuclear Energy Agency before joining BNFL in 1993. He has contributed to two collaborative research programmes of the IAEA on fission product yields, WPEC subgroups on decay heat and the EURATOM Framework projects RED-IMPACT, CANDIDE and ANDES. He is the lead author on nuclear data papers ranging from evaluation, processing, application and validation; including 20 papers published in journals and conference proceedings, 79 papers to UK and JEFF committees and 34 internal laboratory reports. Currently he is also a visiting fellow to the University of Manchester's Nuclear Physics group.
- Colin Zimmerman: Technical specialist with 35 years experience in applied nuclear physics. He joined BNFL in 1981 after five years of post doctoral research in the Nuclear Physics Group of the University of Edinburgh. He has worked on the design and installation of gamma and neutron measurement instruments on operating plant at the Sellafield reprocessing plant and for the last 20 years been a leading member of a team involved with reactor physics and radiation transport calculations supporting Sellafield operations. Recently he has managed the BNFL partitioning and transmutation (P&T) project, been a member of the OECD/NEA Working Party on the Science of the Fuel Cycle and the Expert Group on the Impact of Advanced Nuclear Fuel Cycle Options on Waste Management Policies, and been a partner in and work package leader of the 6th Framework RED-IMPACT project ("Impact of Partitioning, Transmutation and Waste Reduction Technologies on Final Nuclear Waste Disposal"). He is the lead author on a wide range of applied nuclear science papers including 35 papers published in journals and conference proceedings and 57 internal laboratory reports. In addition, is a member of the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA).