My life and carbon

My life and carbon

My introduction to carbon science was unplanned and unexpected. After I received my B.A. in physics from the University of Cambridge (UK) in 1960, I agreed to take an appointment at the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) Atomic Energy Research Establishment (AERE), Harwell, UK. Starting September 1, I was to work on a project studying focused collision sequences in metals. For personal reasons, I was not able to report until a month later, when I was informed that my original position had been filled and that now, I was to work in the Carbon and Graphite Group under the direction of Mr. J. H. W. Simmons. The group had been formed following the “Windscale Incident” in which a gas-cooled nuclear reactor in northwest England had suffered a spontaneous release of “stored energy” that caused the reactor to overheat and release radioactive material into the surrounding area. Mr. Simmons had apparently warned of such an event and he was therefore chosen to head a group to investigate radiation damage in nuclear graphite. I was one of four Scientific Officers in the group and my task was to use the transmission electron microscope (TEM) to study how high-energy neutron radiation affected graphite. I was given an assistant named Barry Sheldon to work with me. My first task was to read a pile of papers and reports dealing with the effects of radiation damage on nuclear graphite, including stored-energy release and the recent annealing of the graphite core in one of the on-site reactors. There were several internal reports about dimensional changes produced by irradiation, and other property changes were being systematically and urgently investigated, but there was only one paper on the subject I was to investigate.