I started this website in 1999 to publicise the fact that my Ph.D was embargoed within my university (Imperial College London) and it was important to me that people could see what I was up to between the years 1992 - 1995. That is to say, the contents of my Ph.D were deemed to be controversial and a copy was not placed in the British Library i.e. it was embargoed within the confines of Imperial College and Westlakes Research Institute, (WRI) Moor Row Cumbria, UK . My research confirmed that for Sellafield at least, the assumption that small particle size of 1 micron AMAD (activity median aerodynamic diameter) is not a realistic modelling parameter to be used in their atmospheric models because I determined values much higher than the commonly assumed 'default' of 1 um (AMAD). The use of a default value will lead to an under-estimation in air concentration values within and around the Sellafield site. Alternatively, my work points to a problem with fugitive emissions within the site due to the very high levels of Vg (dry particle deposition velocities) for both the radiologically important plutonium and caesium-137 levels that were determined.

In its conception, Westlakes Research Institute was predominantly funded by BNFL and much of their personnel were ex-BNFL). I was awarded my Ph.D in 1998 and it is usual that a copy is placed in the British Library. This is to enable its easy dissemination to the scientific community and its contents and conclusions can be flagged up in various academic search engines. Seven years on and my Ph.D is still not cited in the British Library. This makes it extremely difficult for anyone to access its contents and conclusions e.g. the presence of very small particles containing high levels of plutonium, americium, cobalt and caesium etc. I call these hot particles and they are environmentally mobile. I no longer care about these events and have moved onto other stuff. I mention it here as it adds to the context of the site and why it was originally set up.

Update: after almost 8 years, a copy of my PhD contents are finally lodged with the British Library. I had to email the librarian at IC and received a very terse reply (which I have a copy of somewhere). No explanation, no apology...........

My Ph.D can be downloaded here.