PhD in Environmental Radiochemistry

This 3.5 year PhD project is fully funded and home students, and EU students with settled status, are eligible to apply./nThe successful candidate will receive an annual tax-free stipend set at the UKRI rate (£20,780 for 2025/26) and tuition fees will be paid. We expect the stipend to increase each year. The start date is October 2026./nNuclear energy delivers reliable, carbon-free energy and in recent years, the UK Government has committed to nuclear both for energy security and net zero drivers. Critical challenges in the nuclear fuel cycle remain, in particular in managing nuclear waste (cost over £120bn), including complex decommissioning and disposal challenges which require fundamental, environmental radiochemistry research./nX-ray spectroscopy is a highly sensitive technique for studying materials, solution-phase chemistry, and the electronic structure of complexes, all of which are key areas for progress in the nuclear fuel cycle. This PhD studentship will implement advanced computational models of environmental speciation with correlated quantum chemistry methods for solid-state materials and solution phase speciation of actinides, and directly compare simulations with spectra of environmental samples to reveal insight to actinide behaviour under conditions relevant to the nuclear fuel cycle.