Dalton Cumbrian Facility goes live

Manchester University's Dalton Nuclear Institute is set to officially open its Cumbrian research facility on Friday 6 September.

The Dalton Cumbrian Facility is a new research base established with an initial £20m joint investment by the university and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

Situated on the Westlakes Science and Technology Park, near Whitehaven, the DCF will bring world-leading academic research in nuclear energy to West Cumbria.

Once fully operational DCF will house around 50 post-doctoral and PhD researchers, academic lecturers and operating personnel and is expected to attract leading UK and overseas academics to carry out research and deliver lectures.

Now a core component of the new National Nuclear User Facility, announced as part of the Government's Nuclear Industrial Strategy, the DCF is designed to complement and significantly expand the nuclear research and education capability of the UK's nuclear R&D sector.

The overall aims of the facility are the delivery of world-leading nuclear research and the transfer of knowledge to industry. Research at DCF will focus primarily on the areas of radiation science and nuclear engineering decommissioning.

Professor Colin Bailey, vice president and dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences at The University of Manchester, said: "The University of Manchester's Dalton Cumbrian Facility will integrate with the UK's other nuclear R&D facilities to establish a truly unique and world-leading capability."

Contractor Morgan Sindall completed the £5.5m construction phase of the DCF in November 2011. The project included the construction of a concrete-walled research hall, clad in zinc, which now houses a 5MV ion beam accelerator for materials research.

Morgan Sindall worked closely with the team from the Manchester University's Directorate of Estates & Facilities, project managers Drivers Jonas Deloitte and Wilson Mason Architects on the project.