From the atoms inside a fuel pellet to detectors looking for dark matter a kilometre underground.
The lab works where chemistry, nuclear engineering, and national need intersect. Most projects run on real facilities (e.g., the RMC SLOWPOKE-2 reactor, national laboratory hot cells, and underground physics laboratories), so students graduate with hands-on experience that is rare in Canada.
Thermodynamic modelling and experiments on CANDU and small modular reactor (SMR) fuels: fission product behaviour, molybdate chemistry, and the OECD-NEA TAF-ID Project. This work underpins fuel safety cases across the industry.
Delayed neutron counting, gamma spectrometry, and neutron activation analysis for identifying special nuclear materials, supporting safeguards, treaty verification, and emergency response.
Neutron flux characterization, research isotope production, neutron imaging, and reactor modelling on RMC's own research reactor, which the lab helps operate and steward.
Ultra-low-background materials and radiochemistry for the NEWS-G international collaboration's spherical proportional counters at SNOLAB, hunting for light dark matter.
DNA-based dosimeters, high-altitude aircrew dose modelling, and radio-opaque protective fabrics, protecting the people who work with and around radiation.
Radionuclide monitoring for the Royal Canadian Navy, degradation of persistent contaminants such as PFOS using reactor fluxes, and monitoring of treaty-relevant isotopes around micro-SMRs in remote deployments.
Current graduate and postdoctoral projects in the lab, in brief:
Research in this lab is connected work. Projects are funded by, run with, or delivered to partners across Canada's nuclear and defence communities, and students inherit those relationships. Many of my graduate students are serving members of the Canadian Armed Forces; many civilian graduates now work at these organizations.
Partner names are listed for context; organizational marks are not displayed. Research has been supported by approximately $3.7M in funding from NSERC, the Department of National Defence, CDARP, and industry.
Every one of these areas has room for a new student with curiosity and drive.
