I became a member of SEAES in Feb 2010 as the Research Director for the BNFL Research Centre in Radwaste Disposal. Prior to that, I was Senior Lecturer in Environmental Radioactivity at the School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds.
Research Interests
My current research focuses on the environmental behaviour of radioactive contaminants. Development of nuclear weapons and nuclear power has left a legacy of radioactively contaminated land and radioactive wastes that will be disposed of in a deep geological disposal facility. Understanding the behaviour of radioactive contaminants in these environments is essential in managing our radioactive legacy. My work uses multiple approaches to understanding radionuclide behaviour in natural and engineered environments integrating biogeochemical, spectroscopic and radiochemical techniques to gain a fuller picture of radionuclide behaviour in heterogeneous systems. My research programme has focussed on the behaviour of problematic radionuclides such as technetium, uranium and plutonium in environmentally relevant materials. With my collaborators, I have developed state of the art approaches that allow us to interrogate the behaviour of these key radioactive contaminants in complex environments. Currently funded projects involve work on strontium, technetium, uranium, neptunium and plutonium geomicrobiology and contaminant metal behaviour in iron minerals.
