Role at ANSTO
Joel Abraham is a PhD student in the Wasteform Engineering Team, a section within ANSTO Synroc. The team specialises in the research and development of candidate materials or ‘wasteforms’ to support the safe and efficient disposition of nuclear wastes with a focus on problematic nuclear waste streams. The team studies glass, glass-ceramic and ceramic materials to immobilise radioactive wastes using ANSTO’s Synroc Technology.
Joel is a PhD student from the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney). He started his PhD program in February 2021 under the supervision of Dr Dan Gregg (ANSTO), Dr Pramod Koshy (UNSW) and Prof Charles C. Sorrell (UNSW). Joel’s research is focused on expanding the capability of ANSTO’s Synroc technology for nuclear waste immobilisation, particular the design and development of tailored wasteforms. His goal is to further develop various Synroc-based glass-ceramics to immobilise actinide-rich (particularly uranium) radioactive wastes that are generated from nuclear power plant activities and radiopharmaceutical production facilities. This collaborative research project is funded by UNSW, ANSTO and the Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering (AINSE).
Expertise
- Design and synthesis of glass-ceramic wasteforms
- X-ray diffraction (XRD)
- Scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
- Transmission electron microscopy (TEM)
- X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS)
- Focused ion beam (FIB) technique
- Particle size analysis
- X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)
- Thermogravimetric (TG) analysis and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC)