Prof Katherine Morris

I am currently the Associate Dean for Research Facilities in the Faculty of Science and Engineering, the Research Director for the BNFL Research Centre in Radwaste Disposal and the Dalton Nuclear Institute theme lead for Nuclear Environment and Waste.

My current research focuses on the behaviour of radioactive contaminants in engineered and natural environments. Development of nuclear weapons and nuclear power has left a legacy of radioactively contaminated land, effluents and radioactive wastes that need to be managed and ultimately will be disposed of in a deep geological disposal facility. Understanding the behaviour of radioactive contaminants in these environments is essential in managing our radioactive legacy. My work uses multiple approaches to understanding radionuclide behaviour in the environment integrating biogeochemical, spectroscopic and radiochemical techniques to gain a fuller picture of radionuclide behaviour in heterogeneous systems. My research programme has focussed on the behaviour of long lived radionuclides such as strontium, technetium, uranium, neptunium and plutonium in environmentally relevant materials. With my collaborators, I have developed state of the art approaches that allow us to interrogate the behaviour of these key radioactive contaminants in complex environments. Currently funded projects involve work on radioactive waste disposal, on effluent clean up, on contaminated land, on the fate of radioactive particles in the environment and on imaging uranium and neptunium speciation at trace levels. My work is funded through industry and the research councils.