EPSRC review passed

Our DTC has successfully

passed the EPSRC review. The

panel were happy that our cen-

tre works comfortably. Com-

ments from reviewers were that our en-

gagement was industry was excellent. In

addition, they said that “the taught com-

ponent is superb and there is an excellent

bespoke skills programme”.

Good news!!!!

Nuclear DTC FiRST

Special points of

interest:

New cohort

Winter School

2012

MEP visits Man-

chester

Outreach events

Forthcoming

events

Welcome to Nuclear FiRST’s newsletter! You will find here news of what has been happening in the DTC and listings of some forthcoming events July 2012

Summer 2012

Winter school 2012

New cohort

12 new students (7 Sheffield and 5 Man-

chester) have started in September. To

welcome the new batch of students, we

held a team building welcome event in

September. This year, we had a

‘Chocolate Apprentice’ event, where

teams of staff and students had to de-

sign, make and then pitch their product

to a panel. They

have now com-

pleted the 12

weeks taught

programme

and are cur-

rently undergo-

ing their mini research project rotation.

Our third winter school was held in Buxton on 10th-12th of

January. Along with our invited speakers from Areva, Hyder

Consulting and NDA, cohort 1 students gave short presenta-

tions on the progress of their research projects. Cohort 2 stu-

dents presented posters.

Congratulations

to Lizzie who

won this year’s

poster competi-

University of Manchester wins Queen’s dia-mond Jubilee prize Recently, the University’s Man-chester Dalton Nuclear Institute was announced as a winner of the Queen’s Anniversary prize for its contribution to further and higher education. The prizes rec-ognise and celebrate outstanding work with the UK higher and fur-ther education institutions and the impact that they have on society. The award was made in recognition of the excellent applied nuclear research and training activities at Man-chester. The Manchester contribution to Nuclear FiRST falls within the remit of The Dalton Institute, and it forms a significant part of the submission and so it is recognition of our effort to provide excellent postgraduate training in the DTC.

We have now completed

the recruitment for the

next cohort and 11 new

students will be joining

the Nuclear First DTC

family in September.

New cohort

As part as a European initiative I have participated in an MEP - Researcher pairing scheme (21-24 November 2011 at the European Parliament, Brussels)

The scheme aims to support the development of relationships between MEPs and scientists to improve access to scientific advice and deepen scien-tists’ understanding of the role of science in policy-making. During a week in Brussels (21-24 November), I have shadowed an MEP as she was going about her parliamen-tary business, attending committee meetings and meeting officials working in key policy areas such as the environment and energy. In return, the MEP I have shad-owed, Mrs Edit Herczog from Hungary, will come and spend time in Manchester, visiting the research groups conducting nuclear research in Manchester.

Stéphanie Cornet

Member of Parliament (MEP) visits Manchester

Museum of Science and Industry We are still very active with public en-

gagement events and have participated in a few outreach events this year:

25th of October: Manchester Sci-ence Festival

15th of February: Energise! at the Museum of Science.

Students from the first two cohorts took part in these events, preparing posters and displays, including: ‘Radioactivity in food through a guessing game’; ‘Dressing up as alpha, beta and gamma men (see picture on the right of Paul Heath as al-pha-particle-man)’; ‘A mini geological disposal’. During the summer, cohort 3 will run “meet the nuclear scientists” at the mu-seum with brand new demos that they will have designed themselves.

Page 2 Nuclear DTC FiRST

Dates for your diary:

14th of August:

project 2 presentation

(Manchester)

11th of August:

“What’s cool about

Nuclear Science”

event at the Museum

of Science and

Industry (Manchester)

7th of September:

cohort 2 presentation

day

Outreach events

Nuclear Society at Manchester University "As part of the Nuclear Society at Manches-ter University, it's the group's mandate to educate and inform the public as to how nuclear energy, as well as radiation and other related issues, affect all of us. Be it in terms of politics, economics, health or the environment, nuclear energy, whether we like it or not, will have an integral part to play in Britain's future energy strategy. With this in mind, we decided it prudent and wise to start a podcast talking about these issues with the wider public in mind. Along with students from all sections of nuclear research, we aim to ramble on haphazardly about all things nuclear and whether it is necessarily the imminent dan-ger certain facets of the media would lead us to believe? We'll talk about everything associ-ated with nuclear from PWRs, EPRs,FCI, THORP, LLW, ILW, HLW and every other bewildering acronym under the Sun all the way through to perceptions of nuclear in film, books and the media!" Matthew Gunther The podcast can be found at http://nuclearhitchhiker.blogspot.com and is even publicised by AREVA US (http://us.arevablog.com/2012/03/28/hitchhikers-guide-to-nuclear/)