Dr Kostya Trachenko
Abstracts below apply to all projects including MSci, MSc and BSci
Project Abstracts/MSci Review Project Abstracts
Glasses as encapsulation matrices of nuclear waste
The need for a solution of the problem of dealing with nuclear waste is more urgent now than ever before. For highly-radioactive materials it is necessary to encapsulate the radioactive ions within an inert matrix material (waste form) which prevents the ions from diffusing out and becoming a health and environmental hazard. The last few decades have seen increased research in this area, with new proposals and ideas, experimental and modelling results discussed and debated. This project will review these results, with the emphasis on research efforts and its results on glass waste forms. Both policy documents from the UK and EU communities and research papers will be reviewed, and both advantages and disadvantages of several classes of glass waste forms will be discussed.
Crystalline ceramics as encapsulation matrices of nuclear waste: effects of radiation damage
The need for a solution of the problem of dealing with nuclear waste is more urgent now than ever before. For highly-radioactive materials it is necessary to encapsulate the radioactive ions within an inert matrix material (waste form) which prevents the ions from diffusing out and becoming a health and environmental hazard. The last few decades have seen increased research into using crystalline ceramic materials as waste forms. The important issue is the potential degradation of the waste form due to radiation damage. The project will review recent results and proposals related to using crystalline ceramics as waste forms. Recent reports by the UK and USA laboratories as well as research papers will be reviewed and discussed, with particular emphasis on the effect of radiation damage on the performance of waste forms.
Research/Investigative Project Abstracts
The phonon approach to liquid thermodynamics
Historically, liquids have been the toughest objects to deal with from the theoretical point of view. As a result, despite very long history of research, liquids remain least understood theoretically, in contrast to other two basic forms of matter, gases and solids. Recently, we have developed an approach to liquid thermodynamics based on phonons. As such, this approach views liquids as systems related to solids much closer than thought previously. This is in contrast to the previous theories that viewed liquids as strongly interacting gases. In this project, the link between the previous and recent theories will be explored. For a model system, liquid energy and heat capacity will be calculated as an integral over interatomic interactions and correlation functions, and will be compared with the equation derived from the phonon theory. This effort will require the ability to perform analytical calculations as well as using scientific software such as Matlab. The result will be the link between the structure of the liquid and its dynamics, an exciting missing link in the theory of liquids.
