Steve Whittaker

Steve Whittaker

Key Associate

Dr. Steve Whittaker is a nuclear chemist with over 15 years’ experience of nuclear decommissioning and radioactive waste management. He has worked on a variety of complex and high-profile nuclear decontamination/decommissioning projects, mainly at the Sellafield site in Cumbria. He has developed innovative solutions to challenging decommissioning issues whilst developing knowledge and experience of the nuclear industry.

Steve’s project experience includes the following:

Prepared inventory, waste characterisation, sampling and analysis reports in support of retrieval and treatment strategy for fuel, debris and sludge in Sellafield legacy ponds.

Prepared waste packaging conceptual Letter of Compliance (LoC) submissions for solid wastes and sludges in Sellafield legacy ponds.

Provided technical support to Dounreay decommissioning projects, specifically treatment of Na and NaK contaminated materials and understanding chemistry of Na and K in a low water, anaerobic environment.

Provided chemical advice for Sellafield decommissioning projects, specifically plant decontamination, effluent disposal, operational safety studies, HAZOP studies, COSHH assessments and method statements.

Extensive experience of effluent treatment and understanding of reaction mechanisms in a nuclear environment, specifically the removal of Cs and Sr from radioactive liquid effluents using cobalt dicarbollide and zeolite ion exchange materials and the removal of aqueous Pu, U and Tc species from waste using complexants and precipitants.

Practical experience of working in high-beta/gamma radiation and plutonium environments.

Performed radiologically active laboratory trials to establish the characteristics of several proprietary chemical decontamination systems, including consideration of the dissolution rates of metal substrates, gas evolution, chemical speciation modelling of spent decontaminant liquors, and oxidative destruction of organic chelates in waste liquors containing fission products, U, Pu and Tc.

Extensive experience of the safety, design and chemical engineering issues associated with scaling from initial laboratory trials to pilot testing to full deployment on chemical plant. Attendance at many HAZOP, HAZAN and Plant Modification meetings.

International experience of developing decontamination technologies e.g. supercritical carbon dioxide solvent extraction of actinides from soft plastic wastes and soils at the Khlopin Radium Institute in St. Petersburg.