National Nuclear User Facility - apply for access

The UK's National Nuclear User Facility (NNUF) is inviting user access applications for the period April to June 2022 and beyond, with remote access options available.

This is an opportunity for any UK-based university researcher (or employee of other organisations eligible to apply for UK Research & Innovation funding), and their international collaborators, to apply to use these facilities for free. The closing date for applications is 28 February 2022.

Experiments applied for under the NNUF access scheme can last up to six months in length – or longer if a compelling case is made in the application form.

The facilities accepting user applications as part of this round are:

• PANAMA (Plasma Accelerators for Nuclear Applications and Materials Analysis) at the University of Strathclyde – new for this call
• FaRMS (Facility for Radioactive Materials Surfaces) at the University of Bristol - new for this call
• BUFFF (Bangor University Fuel Fabrication Facility) at Bangor University - new for this call
• The Active Nano Mapping Facility at the University of Bristol
• ADRIANA (Advanced Digital Radiometric Instrumentation for Applied Nuclear Activities) at Lancaster, Liverpool and CCFE
• The Centre for Radiochemistry Research at the University of Manchester
• The University of Manchester Dalton Cumbrian Facility – due to upgrade works, this call does not include access to the ion accelerator systems, but all other equipment  is available.
• Diamond Active Materials Laboratory  – please apply via the NNUF call for 'standalone' use of the Active Materials Laboratory. Use of this lab to accompany beamtime is handled via the normal Diamond beamtime application process.
• The EXACT Facility at the University of Southampton
• The HADES Facility at the University of Sheffield
• The MC40 Cyclotron Facility at the University of Birmingham
• The High Temperature Facility hosted by Jacobs Engineering Group
• The Hot Robotics Facility – experiments scheduled here can commence in the period April to September 2022, to allow time for security clearance if required
• Lancaster Accelerator Mass Spectrometer (LAMS-UK) at Lancaster University
• UKAEA’s Materials Research Facility
• The Molten Salts in Nuclear Technology Laboratory at the University of Manchester
• The Nuclear Materials Atom Probe (NuMAP) Facility at the University of Oxford
• The Pyrochemical Research Laboratory at the University of Edinburgh
• The RADER (RADioactive waste management and Environmental Remediation) Facility at the University of Manchester
• Lancaster University’s UTGARD Laboratory.

Given COVID, many of the facilities accepting applications for this call are able to facilitate both in-person and remote access (i.e. facility scientists conducting experiments on behalf of externals). Please get in touch with the contact listed on each facility's page, to find out more.

For more information about the access scheme and NNUF as a whole, please consult the NNUF website.

Contact Francesca McGowan, NNUF Administrator, at [email protected], with any questions about the access scheme.