Huge thanks to the team at I18 @diamondlightsource.bsky.social for their support during THE most challenging experiment I have ever attempted at a synchrotron, to reveal secrets from inside the Earth. We are leaving happy, yet exhausted! Oh, and IMO, every beamline should have its own cat. #kapton
The corium is in the core, yes. Although some scientists (not me) claim to have found particles of spent fuel as far as Tokyo.
I was giving an invited 'mineralogy' talk in a building named after a famous mineralogist and bluesky limits characters, hence the wording in my post. I appreciate your feedback and apologise if I caused offence. I will be sure to name Fukushima Daiichi in full in future!
Yes, I mean the mineralogy of corium, which is called 'lava' at Chernobyl and the slightly less catchy 'molten core concrete interaction product' at Fukushima. My team has been studying this material so others can better design the strategies to clean it up once and for all.
Reflecting on the past and present, what does the future hold for nuclear in the South West region? It was great to be joined by @claireyoungmp.bsky.social and @evelynwelch.bsky.social at the annual @sw-nuclearhub.bsky.social @bristoluni.bsky.social showcase to share ideas and shape what's next ☢️
Sunny London, fascinating uranium minerals from #Chernobyl & #Fukushima, and X-ray analysis of their composition and structures — a perfect fit for the Kathleen Lonsdale Building at @ucl.ac.uk 🔆 Thanks to @geofrances.bsky.social and Earth Sciences colleagues for the invitation to speak! ☢️💚🔆
Let's not create any more problems for future generations to clean up.
#NuclearPower
#Hubris
Where does radioactive waste come from and what are the plans to manage it over timescales longer than human civilizations? ☢️ I chat with @bbcvic.bsky.social on BBC's Inside Science. Listen here to learn more: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... @sw-nuclearhub.bsky.social @cabot-institute.bsky.social
How do you protect people and the environment from radioactive waste – not just for decades, but for millions of years?
Professor @clairecorkhill.bsky.social's research looks to nature for the answer. Read more --> scienceandengineering.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/a-career-in-...
Perfection is absurd.
The path’s been messy — but it’s still going somewhere good.
Still building. Still moving forward. Feeling great. 💯 😎
Great effort @ultradamo.bsky.social! We were really rooting for you. But so too were all those tree roots, brambles, cold, fog, mud, etc. etc. Hope you get to enjoy some gallons of tea now. No finishers in this year's #BM100 ☕ ☠️
And jumping on the chatgpt trend of drawing a caricature of you in your job, here's a nod to the brilliant women scientists I worked with at the weekend at @esrf.fr @hzdr.bsky.social ROBL, and with whom we made a potentially very exciting discovery! #IWISD ♀️☢️💚
Happy International Women in Science Day! #IWISD ♀️👩🏼🔬🥳
From deep time to earth-inspired solutions for radioactive waste and climate adaptation, I’m proud to work alongside so many brilliant women scientists at @bristoluni.bsky.social
scienceandengineering.blogs.bristol.ac.uk?s=women+in+s...
International women doing synchrotron science!♀️👩🏼🔬 Hunting for pentavalent uranium ☢️ in the most unlikely of mineralogical places, eating cheese and having an all-round jolly good time at @esrf.fr @hzdr.bsky.social 🇫🇷🇬🇧🇺🇸 #uranium #rocks
A career in science that lasts a million years. Well, the problem I'm trying to solve will last that long anyway! Check out this @bristoluni.bsky.social blog released just ahead of Women in Science day next week to find out more 👩🏼🔬☢️♀️ #WiS
scienceandengineering.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/a-career-in-...
It does! The UK's only uranium (and later radium) mine was in Cornwall, at a place called South Terras. It was the source of 7.5g of radium, used in part by Marie Curie. It closed finally in 1928. This is what it looks like today
Just look at this beauty! This is autunite, a hydrated calcium uranyl phosphate #mineral (Ca(UO2)2(PO4)2·10H2O for you purists) under UV light. This sample is from Cornwall (UK), a secondary mineral from pegmatite-associated uranium. I had fun teaching our 3rd year Bristol geologists today! ☢️😁
🌱 Winter outside, jungle vibes inside 🦍 New leafy friends courtesy of Sprouts of Bristol - highly recommend if you need a bit of life indoors right now sproutsofbristol.co.uk 🌱
💛💚The daffodils are up! 💛💚Spring is finally here to wash away the long winter. A season to GROW, for all of us. To move FORWARD. To BREATHE fresh air and let the old crap and baggage behind us wash away. Hooray! 🙌
Taking around 9 months, an independent review of the UK's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority launched this week. The review will "challenge existing practices and propose bold recommendations to enhance the NDA’s performance and effectiveness." Read more here: www.gov.uk/government/p... #nukesky
Ukraine is battling to keep the lights on. Khmelnytsky nuclear power plant is vital in their fight ☢️ BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
🚨☢️New paper alert! ☢️🚨Great work from Dr Ritesh Mohun (now at @bangoruniversity.bsky.social) in our USA-UK collaboration with @pullman.wsu.edu on the effect of radiation damage on Y-doped CeO2 (as an analogue for REE-doped UO2). Read it here: @pccp.rsc.org pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...
In case anyone’s dealing with turmoil today, here’s a little respite. Don’t lose your belief in #kindness. I have a glue gun and googly eyes and I'm not afraid to use them — bring me your rocks if needed! 👀 🪨 ✨ #geology #earth #ActsOfCare #EEAAO
photo credit: Chris Foster Photography
Last week saw the last ever Nuclear Waste Services Research Support Office conference where academics, postdocs, PhDs and industrialists shared their research. Although the funding has been sadly withdrawn, many of us will continue our hard work to underpin safe radioactive waste disposal ☢️
The 'Drying Zone' ☔💧🟤 Surely we all have one? (those Hokas used to be white 🤍 once upon a time!) #trailrunning #soggyfeet
Military action in Ukraine continues to disrupt electricity supplies critical to the safe operation of Zaporizhzhya and Chornobyl, and military flying objects come close to the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant, the @iaeaorg.bsky.social reports. #nuclear #nukesky
www.iaea.org/newscenter/p...
Spotted on a muddy 10-mile Mendips run: quiet mist, a wild pony, and that gentle sense that spring is on its way — no rush though, there’s still joy in the boggy, feet-sodden miles 🥰 #trailrunning
Trees, covered with moss, extending from a leaf-covered slope at a variety of angles.
Sometimes you need to explore the overgrown and long forgotten trail; and sometimes you need to abandon the manmade trails entirely and follow those of the deer and foxes.
Hi folks, for any other #stepmums out there, please consider sharing your experiences anonymously for a book about #stepmotherhood. Please RT. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Jan highlight: Wild swimming in the Baltic Sea 🇪🇪🥶 (2C)
