National Nuclear Laboratory

Core Science

Core Science is focused on pushing the boundaries of nuclear science, building NNL’s technical reputation and delivering knowledge and capability for our stakeholders.

There are 14 areas of science that, in supporting our Focus Areas, provide a platform for innovative and scientifically challenging work for our teams.

Several of these are completely new areas of science – introduced in 2020 to meet the evolving opportunities of the UK nuclear sector. Of the remaining areas of science, four have been independently peer reviewed as ‘world-class’, with more progressing to this status.

Not only does our work in Core Science stimulate creativity and fresh thinking amongst our people, but it is fundamentally important to our current and future Strategic Research programmes. It is through the technical advances that have been made in Advanced Fuels and Advanced Recycle and Isotope Separations (ARIS), for example, that we were able to deliver our pioneering Advanced Fuel Cycle Programme (AFCP) on behalf of the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Read more about our recent core science work:

PDF version of the Hydrogen case study
PDF version of the Thermal Treatment case study