The consortium consists of four UK academic partners (City, Open, Manchester and Warwick universities), with collaborative links to an Indian nuclear industrial R&D partner (the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre). The academic partners have backgrounds in nuclear engineering, physics, mathematics, business, finance, actuarial science and economics. They are known internationally for their research into nuclear decommissioning and waste management, safety and environmental assessment, financial and project management, technology policy, economics and decision science, the disciplines needed to complete this project successfully.

 

City University

Professor Philip Thomas is the Principal Investigator. He is a visiting fellow at the University of Bistol and was formerly Professor of Engineering Development and Director of the Risk Management, Reliability and Maintenance Group in the School of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences at City University London. He has extensive nuclear experience, having headed several Departments within the UK Atomic Energy Authority and having been Customer Project Manager for the £100M project to decommission the 100MWth/33MWe Windscale AGR to green field status. At City, he and his team have been responsible for developing a set of techniques, the J-value Framework, that provide recommendations to decision makers in high hazard industries on how much ought to be spent to protect both humans and the environment.

Open University

Professor William Nuttall is Professor of Energy in the Design Group at the Open University.  Much of his work has focussed on technology and policy issues of civil nuclear power. His book, Nuclear Renaissance: Technologies and Policies for the Future of Nuclear Power, reflects his interest in not only the technical but also the commercial and strategic issues. His research has concentrated latterly on the developing methods relating to complexity science and financial economics to problems in energy technology and policy.

Manchester University

Dr John Moriarty is a Lecturer in Probability and Statistics at the University of Manchester, leading a research group in the School of Mathematics specialising in the development and application of real options analysis to energy problems. He has collaborated on research projects sponsored by the National Grid, IBM and Ofgem, and is currently a co-investigator for two EPSRC projects, the Autonomic Power System and Resilient Energy Networks for Great Britain (RESNET).

Warwick University

Professor Simon French is Director of the Risk Initiative and Statistical Consultancy Unit at the University of Warwick. He has received sponsorship from BNFL, Magnox and EPSRC for his research into applying multi-criteria decision analysis to nuclear industry safety. He was a member of the 1990 International Chernobyl Project, leading work on decision making in recovery, and played a leading role in a large, European project, RODOS, to build a decision support system for nuclear emergency management. He is currently working with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) on the processes for involving stakeholders and communities in evaluation of geological disposal sites.

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, India

Dr Srikumar Banerjee is former Secretary of the Department of Atomic Energy and Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, having previously served nine years at the Director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. A metallurgical engineer by training, he has worked collaboratively with many major institutions in the UK, Germany and the USA, and holds many national and international awards.