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SUMMARY:URÅNIA: Unique Research Asset for Nuclear Innovative Applications
  - Speaker to be confirmed
DTSTART:20251127T100000Z
DTEND:20251127T120000Z
UID:TALK241267@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Helene Jones
DESCRIPTION:Materials response to harsh irradiation\, temperature and corr
 osive media is hindering the successful realisation of innovative nuclear 
 fusion\, advanced fission technologies for sustainable energy production a
 nd human exploration of faraway planets. Specifically\, materials early fa
 ilures prevented these scientific longstanding endeavours. The current par
 adigm is for scientists to focus in understanding the initiation stage of 
 degradation while engineers usually focus on developing mitigating solutio
 ns to delay initiation and propagation. \nBut what if we could change the 
 current paradigm and focus directly into understanding the reasons for ini
 tiation of materials degradation?\nURÅNIA shifts the current approach by 
 focusing directly on the incubation stage prior to initiation events thank
 s to a new sophisticated methodology capable to reveal precursors affectin
 g the transition from incubation to initiation and by linking their nanosc
 ale effect to macroscopic behaviour. URÅNIA aim is to accelerate the deve
 lopment of innovative nuclear technologies tackling materials degradation 
 issues by leveraging a combination of cutting edge analyses thanks to inte
 rdisciplinary competences across nuclear\, chemistry\, materials science a
 nd engineering and unique experimental capabilities thanks to a synergisti
 c collaboration with world leading institutions. URÅNIA goal is to unlock
  our fundamental knowledge of materials degradation so to be able to devel
 op degradation resistant materials that can aid in all those key forefront
  technologies in energy and space.\n\nBiography\n\nClaudia Gasparrini is a
  nuclear scientist and Academic Visitor in the Department of Materials & C
 entre for Nuclear Engineering at Imperial College London. In 2024 she was 
 awarded a 1.5M€ European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant URÅNIA: 
 Unique Research Asset for Nuclear Innovative Applications. She worked in t
 he nuclear industry as Senior Consultant in Jensen Hughes (Energy + Utilit
 ies) within JH/EXCEL Services nuclear team on projects internationally\, a
 nd previously as business development manager. As scientist she worked on 
 projects in both fission and fusion specializing in nuclear materials perf
 ormance and degradation. She was awarded a EUROfusion Grant hosted at Cons
 orzio RFX\, Italy targeting materials performance of the Divertor Tokamak 
 Test Facility and ITER Neutral Beam Test Facilities in collaboration with 
 Imperial\, UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) CCFE MRF\, Bristol Universit
 y and ENEA. \nShe worked as Research Associate in the Department of Materi
 als at Imperial investigating neutron irradiation embrittlement of nuclear
  reactors pressure vessel steels in collaboration with the Australian Nucl
 ear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO)\, Australia and the UKAEA 
 Materials Research Facility (MRF)\, UK within the Neu Irr Steels programme
  where she led and supported the shipping of neutron irradiated steels to 
 the MRF and the microscopy analyses across several Universities and develo
 pment of mechanical testing. She also researched ion irradiated steels in 
 collaboration with ANSTO and collaborated on micromechanical testing devel
 opment.\nShe obtained a PhD in Ceramics/Nuclear Materials from the Departm
 ent of Materials at Imperial focusing on oxidation of non-oxide nuclear fu
 els in collaboration with the UK National Nuclear Laboratory. She collabor
 ated with the Institut de Chimie Séparative de Marcoule\, France and the 
 Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA)\, Cadarache\, Fran
 ce to use advanced microscopy techniques on nuclear carbide fuels. She kep
 t researching non-oxide nuclear fuels in collaboration with the University
  of New South Wales (UNSW)\, Australia and ANSTO. She researched and worke
 d in the field of nuclear waste management and decommissioning with an int
 ernship in Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy\, Ltd in Japan and during a MSc resea
 rch placement in the field of permanent disposal of spent nuclear fuels at
  Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden. She holds a BSc and MSc fr
 om Padua University on Chemical\, Materials and Process Engineering and sh
 e studied Nuclear Chemistry and Nuclear Engineering at KTH as ERASMUS stud
 ent.\n\n
LOCATION:CUED\, LR3
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