About the centre
An introduction by Professor Ian Farnan, Director, Cambridge Nuclear Energy Centre
Nuclear expertise exists across many disciplines and in many departments at Cambridge, but not in a single department. The role of Cambridge Nuclear Energy Centre is to coordinate research and teaching across the University.
This research ranges from systems engineering on the integration of current nuclear energy technology into emerging electricity grids with variable inputs to the atomic scale interaction of materials with radiation that will deliver the high temperature and radiation tolerant materials for next generation reactors.
The next generation of reactors will be of multiple scale from a few MWs to > 4GW of thermal power with applications in the decarbonisation of important industrial processes and the green production of hydrogen and other fuels such as sustainable aviation fuels in addition to electricity generation.
We have home-grown expertise in reactor engineering and materials science that is developing new codes to down select and experimentally test materials for new reactors and codes that allow flexible neutronic and thermal hydraulic modelling of new reactor concepts as they emerge.
The main product of the research, in addition to technical breakthroughs, are the people who graduate from our Nuclear Energy Masters and Nuclear Energy Futures PhD programmes, who will carry forward the expansion (and regulation) of nuclear energy in the UK and beyond having been immersed in a nuclear energy culture of safety and technical excellence combined with a knowledge of where the technology fits into the energy transition.
