SATURN: Skills and Training Underpinning a Renaissance in Nuclear, is a new £25M EPSRC CDT in Nuclear Energy.

The primary aim of SATURN is to provide high quality research training in science and engineering underpinning nuclear fission technology, focused on three broad themes:

• Current Nuclear Programmes: Decommissioning and cleanup; spent fuel and nuclear materials management; geological disposal; current operating reactors (AGRs, Sizewell B, propulsion); new build reactors (Hinkley C, Sizewell C, possibly Wylfa Newydd);

• Future Nuclear Energy: Advanced nuclear reactors (light water reactors, including PWR3, gas cooled reactors, liquid metal cooled reactors, other concepts); advanced fuel cycles; fusion (remote handling, tritium);

• Nuclear Energy in a Wider Context: Economics and finance; societal issues; management; regulation; technology transfer (e.g. robotics, sensors); manufacturing; interaction of infrastructure and environment; systems engineering.

SATURN is a collaborative CDT involving the Universities of Manchester, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, and Strathclyde, and 24 industrial partners, which aims to develop the next generation of nuclear research leaders and deliver underpinning (Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 1-3), long term science and engineering to meet the national priorities identified in Government's Nuclear Industrial Vision. SATURN also provides a pathway for mid technology level research (TRL 4-6) to be carried out by allowing projects to be based partly or entirely in an industrial setting.

SATURN benefits from significant investment from EPSRC, the UK nuclear industry, and the partner universities, and will train 140 PhD researchers in science and engineering underpinning nuclear fission technology. This will be one of the largest CDT cohorts in the UK, and create a highly trained pool of postgraduate researchers ready to take on real industry challenges and support a low-carbon economy.