Mark Storr, AWE

AWE provides and maintains the warheads for the Trident nuclear programme to ensure that the UK continues to have a credible and minimum nuclear deterrent and hence supports the nation’s Continuous At-Sea Deterrent (CASD) policy. In order to achieve this AWE is a centre of scientific and technological excellence with some of the most advanced research, design and production facilities in the world. Furthermore, AWE uses these unique nuclear skills and technical expertise in order to develop and deliver national nuclear security and counterterrorism solutions for UK Government.
 
In this presentation we will provide a brief overview of the role of AWE and the work of the materials community in supporting the mission of the business. We will then focus on the system model development cycle which is key to providing a validated predictive capability in support of company assurance processes. The presentation will highlight, via two case studies, how materials modelling in the form of computational chemistry has been employed to input into the model development cycle. The two case studies presented are the development of an actinide hydriding system model1,2 via the application of density functional theory (DFT) as well as the parametrisation of a polymer material model employing the Monte Carlo technique.
 
References 1. Glascott, J. A model for the initiation of reaction sites during the uranium–hydrogen reaction assuming enhanced hydrogen transport through thin areas of surface oxide, Philosophical Magazine, 94(3), 2014. 2. Pegg, J.T., 2018, A relativistic noncollinear computational study of actinide dioxides and their interaction with hydrogen, PhD Thesis, University College London.