Profile

Dr Richard Wilbraham is manager of UTGARD (Uranium & Thorium beta-Gamma Active R&D) Laboratory, an open access BEIS/DECC-funded, alpha active nuclear materials chemistry & chemical engineering laboratory in Lancaster University School of Engineering.

Coming from an analytical chemistry background, Dr Wilbraham is well versed in a host of chemical analysis techniques and their application to nuclear materials characterisation. He has project managed the recent National Nuclear User Facility (NNUF) funded expansion of UTGARD laboratory and, in collaboration with Professor Boxall, is now driving fabrication of fuel precursors and SIMFuels at Lancaster University, including uranium bearing MOX and ATF surrogates. Dr Wilbraham has an abundance of radioactive material handling experience, having managed and been Radiation Protection Supervisor (RPS) of open source radiation laboratories in the School of Engineering for over 10 years and holding certificates in both uranium handling and working safely in the nuclear industry from NNL Springfields and Sellafield respectively.

Dr Wilbraham’s research has focussed on the corrosion of fuel, clad and structural materials under interim storage/geological disposal and reprocessing conditions. In the case of the former, he was a member of the UK Spent Nuclear Fuel Project (EP/I036400/1), producing several well cited publications and supporting three Ph.D.’s within this area. In the case of the latter Dr Wilbraham (supported by funding from the Lloyd’s Register Foundation) was part of the international EU funded consortium SACSESS (Safety of ACtinide SEparation Processes) where his work on process steel corrosion in the presence of EURO-GANEX actinide extractants was recognised as of “International importance” by the project oversight committee. He expanded upon this work in the H2020 GENIORS (GEN IV Integrated Oxide fuels Recycling Strategies) consortium, producing a publication in Electrochemical Communications. More recently Dr Wilbraham has been a part of both the BEIS funded NNIP (National Nuclear Innovation Programme) and follow on AFCP (Advanced Fuel Cycle Program), fabricating simulated high plutonium loading MOX fuel and silicide/nitride ATF surrogates.

Dr Wilbraham has published on fuel, clad and structural materials corrosion in a range of high impact factor scientific journals and has also produced >25 reports for the nuclear industry. He is a reviewer for the Elsevier journals Corrosion Science and Progress in Nuclear Energy.

While primarily involved in research, he also teaches on the undergraduate Nuclear Engineering program within the School of Engineering and supervises Nuclear Engineering M.Sc students.