Research Associate in Geomicrobiology Related to

**BACKGROUND**

The UK has been generating electricity from nuclear power for over sixty years. Consequently, the issue of safely disposing of the UK’s approximately 750,000 m3 Intermediate and High-Level Nuclear Waste (ILW/HLW), and future waste is a clear priority. The UK government policy is to dispose of the higher activity nuclear wastes in an underground geological disposal facility (GDF) at an estimated cost of £20-53 billion, and lifetime of 100+ years. One of the rock types identified as potentially suitable to host a GDF are lower strength sedimentary rocks (LSSRs).

**Overall Purpose of the Job**

This position will form part of the NERC and Nuclear Waste Services (NSW) funded ‘Towards Safe Geological Disposal of Radioactive Waste in LSSRs (GeoSafe)’ project. This consortium project is a £5 M collaboration between Imperial College London, University of Manchester, the British Geological Survey, University of Liverpool, Heriot Watt University, Leeds University, and the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL). The successful applicant will be based in Department of Earth and Environment at The University of Manchester, and will also undertake research visits to other universities and institutes (e.g. Diamond Light Source). The research associate will work closely with other members of the GeoSafe team to exchange and integrate their results and achieve the projects broad objective of understanding the key aspect of radioactive waste disposal in lower strength sedimentary rock.

The purpose of this research associate position is to undertake experiments to determine the suitability of LSSR as a GDF host rock and develop accurate models to predict the transport and fate of key radionuclides under relevant biogeochemical conditions. The research associate will be involved in several key aspects of the research, including (1) the characterisation of microbial communities in relevant LSSR samples, (2) determining their response to electron donors and acceptors expected in GDF systems, and (3) identifying the impacts of LSSR microbial processes on radionuclide solubility. A broad range of microbial (culturing and DNA-based) techniques will be used alongside state of the art geochemical, mineralogical and imaging approaches in batch and flow-through experiments. Together these datasets will help constrain the impacts of microbial processes on the release of radionuclides from an LSSR GDF into the surrounding geosphere, and help underpin biogeochemical models that can inform the safety case for such a facility.

**What you will get in return**:

- Fantastic market leading Pension scheme
- Excellent employee health and wellbeing services including an Employee Assistance Programme
- Exceptional starting annual leave entitlement, plus bank holidays
- Additional paid closure over the Christmas period
- Local and national discounts at a range of major retailers

As an equal opportunities employer we welcome applicants from all sections of the community regardless of age, sex, gender (or gender identity), ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation and transgender status. All appointments are made on merit.

Our University is positive about flexible working you can find out more here

Hybrid working arrangements may be considered.
- Any CV’s submitted by a recruitment agency will be considered a gift._

**Enquiries about the vacancy, shortlisting and interviews**:
Name: Jon LLoyd

**General enquiries**:
**Technical support**:
**Please see the link below for the Further Particulars document which contains the person specification criteria.