Contract - Vacuum engineer

Consortium CELLS

Barcelona, Spain

Deadline: 2014/03/16

Description

CELLS is a consortium whose aim is the management of the economical, technical and administrative collaboration of the entities being part of the consortium, Ministerio de Ciéncia y Tecnología and Generalitat de Catalunya. The object of the collaboration is the construction, equipping and exploitation of the Synchrotron Radiation Light Source Laboratory sited in the area of Vallès Occidental.

The ALBA main storage ring has an energy of 3 Gev and delivers synchrotron light. The diameter of the main storage ring is about 85 m and 7 beam lines are in operation.

Function:

He/she will take responsibility as a vacuum engineer. He/she will assume the maintenance and exploitation of the vacuum existing systems and facilities. He/she will provide guidance and advise on those aspects related with the vacuum and ultra high vacuum technologies. The main tasks expected from the successful applicant are:

 *Complex of accelerators and beam lines ultra-high vacuum systems follow-up and exploitation.

  * Participation on those CELLS projects involving vacuum technology.

  * Participation in the technical vacuum design studies

  * Production of technical specifications and costs estimations. 

  * Production of drawing associated to above mentioned documents.

  * Production follow-up, installation and commissioning of vacuum systems and components.

  * Writing and/or review installation, maintenance, coordination procedures.

  * Contribute to the organization and scheduling of the preventive, predictive and corrective maintenance of vacuum facilities.

  * Coordination with other technical teams to meet the expected goals of the working team, this includes collection of information, reporting and coordination.

  * Follow-up and documentation on activities during the installation, commissioning, maintenance, etc.

PhD - Uranium melting and atomization

Technische Universität München (Germany) & AREVA-CERCA in Romans (France)

Deadline for applications is 2014-02-16.

Description

The neutron source Heinz Maier-Leibnitz (FRM II) aims to convert its operation from usage of highly enriched Uranium (HEU) to lower enriched Uranium. This program is part of world wide efforts to minimize the usage of HEU in research reactors. For this reason, a new nuclear fuel with a very high Uranium density has to be developed. 

In the past years, the working group “Hochdichte Brennstoffe” of FRM II together with its partner AREVA-CERCA in France has constructed a device to produce Uranium powder of small spherical particles with diameters of 50-100 µm. This device, which is currently a prototype, needs Uranium pins for its operation that have to be casted beforehand in a specially designed furnace. 

To enforce our team, we are looking for a Ph.D. Student to continue and expand our work in this field. Large parts of the thesis have to be carried out at AREVA-CERCA in Romans, France. The work consists of two main parts: 

• The optimization and industrialization of the Uranium casting process, or depending on the outcome, the construction of a new furnace which satisfies the pronounced safety requirements of the nuclear industry.

Therefore, a safety plan has to be developed and implement together with the French nuclear authorities.

• The optimization and industrialization of the atomization process. This includes a design review, parameterization of the proto-type, process modelling, automation and more. Again, this has to be carried out in accordance with the French nuclear regulations.