The University of Sheffield
Department of Sociological Studies

‘Nuclear Societies’ PhD Studentships

Applications are invited for three fully funded, four-year cross-faculty studentships at the University of Sheffield, beginning in September 2013. These exciting studentship opportunities arise from an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) investment to create a multi-disciplinary cohort of students around a shared topic, trained and supervised between the ESRC White Rose Social Sciences Doctoral Training Centre (WRSSDTC) and the EPSRC Nuclear First Centre for Doctoral Training. The vision for this initiative is to create a multi-disciplinary community of researchers capable of critically engaging with future research agendas relating to nuclear energy in society.

Nuclear energy is at a critical point in its long history as climate change, peak oil, and the implications of Fukushima play out unevenly across different countries. We are, as researchers, confronted with problems that are both multi-layered and multi-disciplinary. Whether considering extensions to the lifetime of current reactors, replacement reactor options, decommissioning processes, expansion policies or a strategy of retreat from nuclear, the need for social scientists capable of engaging with the technical research base grows ever more pressing.

In brief the three projects areas are:

1. Project 1: Nuclear futures and the politics of scale

Supervisors: Dr Matt Watson (Geography) and Professor John Provis (Materials Science and Engineering).

This project will engage theories of socio-technical change and contemporary geographical theorisations of scale to explore how commitment to nuclear power will contribute to path dependencies in energy system innovation and development, to guide forward looking analysis of the implications of nuclear development.

Project 2: Nuclear energy and the implications for environmentalism

Supervisors: Dr Stephen Connelly (Town and Regional Planning) and Professor Russell Hand (Materials Science and Engineering).

Discourses of nuclear energy in the UK and elsewhere have quietly, but fundamentally, shifted from being politically unpalatable a decade ago, to the point where nuclear can be encompassed in policy statements alongside renewable energies as a sustainable option. So what has shifted?

Project 3: Decommissioning cultures: the policy and practice of waste management

Supervisors: Dr Susan Molyneux-Hodgson (Sociological Studies), Dr Matthew Cotton (Town and Regional Planning) and Professor Neil Hyatt (Materials Science and Engineering).

This project will trace real-time decommissioning processes in the UK and compare these with policies and practices in other EU states (e.g. Sweden and Finland). Actor network approaches will be adopted in tracing potential site excavations; mapping actors and objects; and analysing innovations in disposal and storage as socio-technical matters.

Successful applicants will be expected to develop these broad project specifications in more detail during the first year of study, during which time they will also undertake tailored training in social sciences and nuclearrelated topics. Applications are invited from strong graduates and postgraduates with a relevant background in either social sciences ready to engage with materials science and engineering, or those from an engineering or materials science background ready to develop skills and understanding as social science researchers. For further details on each studentship, please contact the relevant lead supervisor.

To Apply - Applicants are required to complete all of the following steps and submit this information in one Application Pack (in a combined pdf format):

Enquiries related to the application process should be emailed directly to Rachel Shirley, Scholarships Officer, University of Sheffield, via email pgr-scholarships@sheffield.ac.uk.