Project WAGR: The UK Demonstration Project for Power Reactor Decommissioning - The Core and Beyond

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry Benest
Keyword(s):  
Pressure Vessel ◽  
Reactor Core ◽  
Processing Route ◽  
Nuclear Facilities ◽  
The Core ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Cutting Equipment ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Uk

The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) has built and operated a wide range of nuclear facilities since the late 1940s. UKAEA’s present mission is to restore the environment of these facilities in a safe and secure manner. This restoration includes the decommissioning of a number of redundant research and power reactors. The Windscale Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor (WAGR) operated at an output of 33 MW (e) from 1963–1981 and comprised a carbon dioxide cooled, graphite moderated reactor using uranium dioxide fuel in stainless steel cans. WAGR was the prototype reactor used to develop technologies for the family of full-scale commercial AGRs that followed. Following shutdown, UKAEA decided to continue their research activities into the decommissioning phase to develop dismantling techniques and establish waste routes. The initial phases of the project involved the construction of the waste handling route and the design and construction of a remote dismantling machine and an interim ILW store. The reactor core and pressure vessel is now being dismantled in a programme of 10 campaigns. This paper will summarise the history of the reactor, the operation of the waste-processing route, the installed dismantling equipment and the successful completion of the first seven campaigns. The rapid completion of Campaign 6, “the reactor core and restraint structures”, will be described in detail. The paper will also describe work to develop remotely operated oxy-propane cutting equipment to dismantle the core support structures and the pressure vessel and due to be used in 2003/2004. Special attention will be given in this paper to the recent rapid progress in the remote dismantling campaigns and the low radiation doses incurred by operators.

Editorial

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Eva Cendon ◽  
John Butcher
Keyword(s):  
Further Education ◽  
University Education ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Widening Participation ◽  
The North ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
International Perspectives ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
International Sector ◽  
The Uk

This general edition of the journal provides insights and results of research employing a wide range of approaches and perspectives on widening participation and lifelong learning. Studies from across the UK and international sector utilise different methodological approaches, and as such are particularly interesting, with diverse methods and ways of analysis, including phenomenographic, narrative, and thematic analysis. Overall, the articles range from exploratory case studies and small-scale research to wider range and broad scale studies, highlighting different facets and perspectives. Furthermore, the articles in this volume cover a broad spectrum of institutions and places involved in widening participation, with an emphasis on the (higher) education sector in the UK balanced by international perspectives. The first seven empirical articles are based on research activities in a secondary school, a youth centre, in further education colleges (usually focusing on post-compulsory secondary or pre-university education), in so-called post-92 universities (new(er) universities, formerly Polytechnics and teacher training colleges), and last but not least in a research intensive Russell Group university. They reported challenges from the specific local contexts of different regions in England, from the South (Chichester) to London to the North (Carlisle), and can usefully be framed in the context of international discussions appearing later in the journal.

scholarly journals Employing neo-Durkheimian institutional theory in cross-cultural accounting research

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (8) ◽  
pp. 1270-1293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Mark Linsley ◽  
Alexander Linsley ◽  
Matthias Beck ◽  
Simon Mollan
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Theory ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Accounting Research ◽  
Mary Douglas ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Uk

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose Neo-Durkheimian institutional theory, developed by the Durkheimian institutional theory, as developed by anthropologist Mary Douglas, as a suitable theory base for undertaking cross-cultural accounting research. The social theory provides a structure for examining within-country and cross-country actions and behaviours of different groups and communities. It avoids associating nations and cultures, instead contending any nation will comprise four different solidarities engaging in constant dialogues. Further, it is a dynamic theory able to take account of cultural change. Design/methodology/approach The paper establishes a case for using neo-Durkheimian institutional theory in cross-cultural accounting research by specifying the key components of the theory and addressing common criticisms. To illustrate how the theory might be utilised in the domain of accounting and finance research, a comparative interpretation of the different experiences of financialization in Germany and the UK is provided drawing on Douglas’s grid-group schema. Findings Neo-Durkheimian institutional theory is deemed sufficiently capable of interpreting the behaviours of different social groups and is not open to the same criticisms as Hofstede’s work. Differences in Douglasian cultural dialogues in the post-1945 history of Germany and the UK provide an explanation of the variations in the comparative experiences of financialization. Originality/value Neo-Durkheimian institutional theory has been used in a wide range of contexts; however, it has been little used in the context of accounting research. The adoption of the theory in future accounting research can redress a Hofstedian-bias in accounting research.

Sellafield Decommissioning Programme: Progress Update

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. F. Challinor
Keyword(s):  
Research And Development ◽  
Fuel Cycle ◽  
Step Change ◽  
Nuclear Facilities ◽  
Extensive Experience ◽  
Strategic Direction ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Uk Government ◽  
The Uk

In 1999 the UK government announced a step change in the strategy for the delivery of the UK civil nuclear clean-up programme. BNFL has responded to the Governments announcement by changing the strategic direction and increasing the priority on remediation activities across the Company. BNFL has extensive experience in decommissioning nuclear facilities having undertaken remediation and decommissioning operations on BNFL sites for many years, encompassing a wide range of projects including reactors, fuel cycle plants and Research and Development facilities. This paper describes the challenges posed by, and the progress made, on some of the range of decommissioning projects undertaken on the Sellafield site as part of its decommissioning and remediation portfolio. These decommissioning operations cover a variety of redundant fuel cycle facilities ranging in size and complexity in both beta gamma and alpha contamination environments utilising manual and remote decommissioning techniques to systematically and progressively reduce the hazard on the site.

Effects of Ruthenium Release in Oxidizing Conditions on a BWR Source Term

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atso Suopaja¨rvi ◽  
Teemu Ka¨rkela¨ ◽  
Ari Auvinen ◽  
Ilona Lindholm
Keyword(s):  
Pressure Vessel ◽  
Source Term ◽  
Reactor Core ◽  
Severe Accident ◽  
Ruthenium Oxides ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Standard Model ◽  
Reactor Building ◽  
Release Model ◽  
Scoping Studies

The release of ruthenium in oxygen-rich conditions from the reactor core during a severe accident may lead to formation of significantly more volatile ruthenium oxides than produced in steam atmosphere. The effect of volatile ruthenium release in a case a reference BWR nuclear plant was studied to get rough-estimates of the effects on the spreading of airborne ruthenium inside the containment and reactor building and the fission product source term. The selected accident scenario starting during shutdown conditions with pressure vessel upper head opened was a LOCA with a break in the bottom of the RPV. The results suggest that there is a remarkable amount of airborne Ru in the containment atmosphere, unlike with the standard MELCOR Ru release model which predicts no airborne Ru at all in the selected case. The total release of ruthenium from the core can be 5000 times the release predicted by the standard model. Based on the performed plant scoping studies it seems reasonable to take the release of volatile ruthenium oxides into account when assessing source terms for plants during shutdown states.

Commentary on “Reflections on culture, structure and function of an intensive support service centred on positive behavioural support”

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 212-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Toogood
Keyword(s):  
Support Service ◽  
Structure And Function ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Behavioural Support ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Service Models ◽  
History Of ◽  
Positive Behaviour Support ◽  
The Uk ◽  
And Function

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a commentary on Patterson and Berry’s paper “Reflections on culture, structure and function of an intensive support service centred on positive behavioural support”. Design/methodology/approach This paper reviews key ideas presented in Patterson and Berry’s article relative to the recent history of service delivery in the UK and the growing interest being shown in positive behaviour support. Findings Patterson and Berry’s article adds to a modest literature on specialist support services and should stimulate further descriptions of service models and the concepts underpinning them. Originality/value The literature on specialist support service models is limited and this addition should be relevant to a wide range of clinicians, consumers and commissioners.

Cultures of Compensation

2019 ◽  
Vol 99 (99) ◽  
pp. 5-6
Author(s):  
Jeremy Gilbert
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Black Studies ◽  
Present Moment ◽  
Social Activities ◽  
Critical Thought ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Ecological Site ◽  
The Core ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Uk

The current highly-advanced form of capitalism – turbocharged by the cybernetic revolution and engaging in all imaginable forms of creative destruction – provides the backdrop to many of the articles in this issue. They are broadly concerned with the question of how capitalist cultures (and their agents) retain legitimacy in an era of extreme commercialisation and insecurity. Josh Bowsher and Theo Reeves-Evison examine the politics of ecological credit schemes, that allow businesses to destroy a discrete ecosystem in return for the restoration of an ecological site elsewhere. Nancy Ettlinger situates the emergence of for-profit crowdsourcing as a key contemporary mode of value-extraction in the longer history of ‘prosumption’. Michael Symons and Marion Maddox offer a fascinating study of the mechanisms by which the explicitly commercial and profit-oriented nature of a range of social activities within advanced capitalist societies – including megachurches - come to be understood as guarantees of the legitimacy and authenticity of those activities themselves. Ella Harris’ considers ‘compensatory cultures’: cultures that are compensatory responses to crisis, but are presented and received as desirable, even preferable ways of organising life. On a somewhat different topic, but one no less relevant to the exigencies of our present moment, or less central to the core concerns of New Formations – Dhanveer Singh Brar and Ashwani Sharma’s ‘What is this ‘Black’ in Black Studies ?’maps out a new presence in race discourse in the UK arts and higher education, under the heading of ‘US Black Critical Thought’. And the issue begins with a substantial interview with the great Hungarian philosopher Agnes Heller who died in 2019.

Defining and quantifying the core microbiome: Challenges and prospects

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (51) ◽  
pp. e2104429118
Author(s):  
Alexander T. Neu ◽  
Eric E. Allen ◽  
Kaustuv Roy
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Ecology ◽  
Representative Sample ◽  
Sequence Variants ◽  
Core Microbiome ◽  
The Core ◽  
Taxonomic Level ◽  
Functional Attributes ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Ecological Roles ◽  
History Of

The term “core microbiome” has become widely used in microbial ecology over the last decade. Broadly, the core microbiome refers to any set of microbial taxa, or the genomic and functional attributes associated with those taxa, that are characteristic of a host or environment of interest. Most commonly, core microbiomes are measured as the microbial taxa shared among two or more samples from a particular host or environment. Despite the popularity of this term and its growing use, there is little consensus about how a core microbiome should be quantified in practice. Here, we present a brief history of the core microbiome concept and use a representative sample of the literature to review the different metrics commonly used for quantifying the core. Empirical analyses have used a wide range of metrics for quantifying the core microbiome, including arbitrary occurrence and abundance cutoff values, with the focal taxonomic level of the core ranging from phyla to amplicon sequence variants. However, many of these metrics are susceptible to sampling and other biases. Developing a standardized set of metrics for quantifying the core that accounts for such biases is necessary for testing specific hypotheses about the functional and ecological roles of core microbiomes.

ERNST VALENTINOVICH TRUSKINOV (1941–2021)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
YU.V. UKHATOVA ◽  
◽  
I.V. KOTELKINA ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
History Of Science ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Potato Breeding ◽  
Local History ◽  
Community Studies ◽  
Russian Scientist ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
History Of

The book is dedicated to the late Russian scientist Ernst Valentinovich Truskinov, Doctor of Biological Sciences (1941–2021), who would have celebrated his 80th birthday in 2021. Information about his life, research activities, and local history and community studies is presented here. Ernst Truskinov was an expert in the fields of potato breeding and seed production, biotechnology, and plant virology. In his late years, he was actively engaged in the problems of the history of science. This publication is addressed to a wide range of readers, such as biologists, lecturers and students of universities and colleges specializing in biology, agricultural sciences or liberal arts, as well as to everyone who is interested in the history of science.

The structure of the NHS in the UK

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Blánaid Daly ◽  
Paul Batchelor ◽  
Elizabeth Treasure ◽  
Richard Watt
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Health Service ◽  
Philosophical Approach ◽  
Health Care Professions ◽  
Planning Approach ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Second World

The National Health Service was created at the end of the Second World War. Its structure has remained relatively stable until the 1970s. Since then, politicians have continued to reform it at an ever-increasing rate and, in 2012, the biggest change to the English NHS structure was implemented (Reynolds and McKee 2012). The question as to why the reforms are being undertaken is crucial. Growing demands, changing epidemiology, better understanding of the determinants of health, and evolving societal values have all influenced the process. Perhaps most crucial is the latter. It is probably more appropriate to describe the current NHS as four differing NHS care systems that are coterminous with the legislative bodies that exist within the UK, namely England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Not only are the planning arrangements becoming more divergent, but also the philosophical approach underpinning each system is beginning to follow very different paths. The NHS has almost never taken a typical theoretical planning approach but rather has evolved due to the wide range of factors and influences involved. These include the changing power of health care professions, the need to ration services, adoption of economic theory (market forces and the internal market), and, not least, changing governments with differing political stances. The importance of understanding the history of the service and the lessons of the past are that they inform the present and can provide an indication of how the future may look. This chapter outlines the major influences on the NHS since its inception, describes the major problems currently faced by the NHS, and provides an overview of the ways in which clinical services are currently delivered. It will not give a detailed description of the structure of the health service, not least as by the time the book is published a new structure will exist. The current structure of the health service in each of the four countries of the UK will be available on this book’s website, and updated as changes occur.

Partitioning experiments in the laser-heated diamond anvil cell: volatile content in the Earth's core

2008 ◽  
Vol 366 (1883) ◽  
pp. 4295-4314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew P Jephcoat ◽  
M. Ali Bouhifd ◽  
Don Porcelli
Keyword(s):  
Trace Elements ◽  
Diamond Anvil Cell ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Mantle Reservoir ◽  
History Of ◽  
Diamond Anvil ◽  
Laser Heated

The present state of the Earth evolved from energetic events that were determined early in the history of the Solar System. A key process in reconciling this state and the observable mantle composition with models of the original formation relies on understanding the planetary processing that has taken place over the past 4.5 Ga. Planetary size plays a key role and ultimately determines the pressure and temperature conditions at which the materials of the early solar nebular segregated. We summarize recent developments with the laser-heated diamond anvil cell that have made possible extension of the conventional pressure limit for partitioning experiments as well as the study of volatile trace elements. In particular, we discuss liquid–liquid, metal–silicate (M–Sil) partitioning results for several elements in a synthetic chondritic mixture, spanning a wide range of atomic number—helium to iodine. We examine the role of the core as a possible host of both siderophile and trace elements and the implications that early segregation processes at deep magma ocean conditions have for current mantle signatures, both compositional and isotopic. The results provide some of the first experimental evidence that the core is the obvious replacement for the long-sought, deep mantle reservoir. If so, they also indicate the need to understand the detailed nature and scale of core–mantle exchange processes, from atomic to macroscopic, throughout the age of the Earth to the present day.

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