Senior Exhaust Physicist

Overview

• Salary: £57,117 (inclusive of Specialist Allowance) + excellent benefits including outstanding pension
• Division:
  Plasma Science and Fusion Operations
• Department:
  Plasma Physics

By 2050, the planet could be using twice as much electricity compared to today. Fusion, the process that powers the Sun and Stars, is one of the most promising options for generating the cleaner, carbon-free energy that our world badly needs.

UKAEA leads the way in realizing fusion energy, partnering with industry and research for ground breaking advancements. Our goal is to bring fusion electricity to the grid, supported by tomorrow's power stations. In pursuit of our mission, UKAEA embraces core values:
Innovative, Committed, Trusted, and Collaborative.

As an employee of UKAEA you will benefit from:

• Outstanding defined benefit pension scheme, details of which can be found at the end of this advert.
• Corporate bonus scheme up to 7% and a Relocation allowance (if eligible).
• Flexible working options including family friendly policies and the right to request flexible working from the start of your employment.
• Employee Assistance Programme and trained Mental Health First Aiders,
• Generous annual leave allowance starting with 25 days, plus 3 days Christmas closure and 2.5 privilege days, in addition to UK bank holidays
• A vibrant culture committed to equality and being fully inclusive

The salary for this role is £57,117 (inclusive of a Specialist Allowance). Onsite working is expected for 3 days each week, however, we actively support requests for flexible working.

This role can be based at any of the following sites:
Culham, Oxfordshire.

This role requires employees to complete an online Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS), including The Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks for criminal convictions and possibly a search of open source data.

As a Senior Exhaust Physicist, you will use primarily 3D physical models to describe the turbulent behaviour of plasma at the periphery of tokamak devices. Key duties include modelling of turbulent transport in the scrape-off layer (SOL) and validating simulation results and theoretical findings against MAST-U experimental measurements, as well as other machines and predictive modelling of future machines.

Your career development as a scientist will be strongly supported, including working towards chartership with the Institute of Physics.

• Contributing to and guiding the development of new SOL predictive and interpretative codes.
• Providing interpretative modelling of MAST-U, and other tokamak devices, and predictive modelling of future devices, with 3D turbulence codes using Hermes-3
• Contributing to and guiding the development of models describing physical processes in the SOL.
• Supporting experimentalists by providing theoretical insight when requested.
• Disseminating results and reporting findings at internal meetings, international meetings, conferences and in peer-reviewed journals.
• Building strong relations with external laboratories and universities in support of the above accountabilities.
• Supervising and mentoring placement and PhD students associated with exhaust physics.

• PhD level knowledge of 3D turbulent exhaust codes and SOL turbulence, with post-doc or equivalent research experience.
• Proven ability to conduct independent research.
• Documented experience in working with relevant codes e.g. Hermes-3.
• Experimental and theoretical knowledge of SOL and exhaust physics issues.
• Excellent team-player with an outward facing work-ethos as they will work closely with scientists around the world.
• Excellent oral and written communications skills.
• Strong record of publications in the field.
• Proficiency with post-processing programming languages.

UKAEA’s mission is clean energy for all, and we welcome talented people from all backgrounds to help us achieve this goal. We are committed to equality, diversity, and inclusion and strive to ensure fair representation across our workforce. We particularly encourage applications from groups currently underrepresented in STEM, including women and individuals from diverse ethnic backgrounds, while ensuring all appointments are made on merit.

UK Atomic Energy Authority is committed to being accessible. Please email  if you have any questions or require help or adjustments to compete on a fair basis, for example, changes to the way we interview or share information.

Please note that vacancies are generally advertised for 4 weeks but may close earlier if we receive a large number of applications.