Mon 16 Mar 13:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Lavenia Ratnarajah, UCL
- Monday 16 March 2026, 13:00-14:00
- Venue: MR3, CMS.
- Series: Quantitative Climate and Environmental Science Seminars; organiser: Dr Kasia Warburton.
Mon 24 Nov 13:00: CANCELLED
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Rob Doubleday, Centre for Science and Policy, University of Cambridge
- Monday 24 November 2025, 13:00-14:00
- Venue: MR3, CMS.
- Series: Quantitative Climate and Environmental Science Seminars; organiser: Bethan Wynne-Cattanach.
Thu 27 Nov 10:00: URÅNIA: Unique Research Asset for Nuclear Innovative Applications
Materials response to harsh irradiation, temperature and corrosive media is hindering the successful realisation of innovative nuclear fusion, advanced fission technologies for sustainable energy production and human exploration of faraway planets. Specifically, materials early failures prevented these scientific longstanding endeavours. The current paradigm is for scientists to focus in understanding the initiation stage of degradation while engineers usually focus on developing mitigating solutions to delay initiation and propagation. But what if we could change the current paradigm and focus directly into understanding the reasons for initiation of materials degradation? URÅNIA shifts the current approach by focusing directly on the incubation stage prior to initiation events thanks to a new sophisticated methodology capable to reveal precursors affecting the transition from incubation to initiation and by linking their nanoscale effect to macroscopic behaviour. URÅNIA aim is to accelerate the development of innovative nuclear technologies tackling materials degradation issues by leveraging a combination of cutting edge analyses thanks to interdisciplinary competences across nuclear, chemistry, materials science and engineering and unique experimental capabilities thanks to a synergistic collaboration with world leading institutions. URÅNIA goal is to unlock our fundamental knowledge of materials degradation so to be able to develop degradation resistant materials that can aid in all those key forefront technologies in energy and space.
Biography
Claudia Gasparrini is a nuclear scientist and Academic Visitor in the Department of Materials & Centre for Nuclear Engineering at Imperial College London. In 2024 she was awarded a 1.5M€ European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant URÅNIA: Unique Research Asset for Nuclear Innovative Applications. She worked in the nuclear industry as Senior Consultant in Jensen Hughes (Energy + Utilities) within JH/EXCEL Services nuclear team on projects internationally, and previously as business development manager. As scientist she worked on projects in both fission and fusion specializing in nuclear materials performance and degradation. She was awarded a EUR Ofusion Grant hosted at Consorzio RFX , Italy targeting materials performance of the Divertor Tokamak Test Facility and ITER Neutral Beam Test Facilities in collaboration with Imperial, UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) CCFE MRF , Bristol University and ENEA . She worked as Research Associate in the Department of Materials at Imperial investigating neutron irradiation embrittlement of nuclear reactors pressure vessel steels in collaboration with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), Australia and the UKAEA Materials Research Facility (MRF), UK within the Neu Irr Steels programme where she led and supported the shipping of neutron irradiated steels to the MRF and the microscopy analyses across several Universities and development of mechanical testing. She also researched ion irradiated steels in collaboration with ANSTO and collaborated on micromechanical testing development. She obtained a PhD in Ceramics/Nuclear Materials from the Department of Materials at Imperial focusing on oxidation of non-oxide nuclear fuels in collaboration with the UK National Nuclear Laboratory. She collaborated with the Institut de Chimie Séparative de Marcoule, France and the Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), Cadarache, France to use advanced microscopy techniques on nuclear carbide fuels. She kept researching non-oxide nuclear fuels in collaboration with the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia and ANSTO . She researched and worked in the field of nuclear waste management and decommissioning with an internship in Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy, Ltd in Japan and during a MSc research placement in the field of permanent disposal of spent nuclear fuels at Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden. She holds a BSc and MSc from Padua University on Chemical, Materials and Process Engineering and she studied Nuclear Chemistry and Nuclear Engineering at KTH as ERASMUS student.
- Speaker: Speaker to be confirmed
- Thursday 27 November 2025, 10:00-12:00
- Venue: CUED, LR3.
- Series: Engineering Department Nuclear Energy Seminars; organiser: Helene Jones.