Pieter Bots

After my PhD in environmental mineralogy at the University of Leeds I moved to the University of Manchester in 2012 for a Postdoc position in actinide biogeochemistry on the NERC funded BIGRAD project.

In 2016 I joined the University of Strathclyde on the Little Forrest Legacy Site (LFLS) immobilization project. The LFLS contains several trenches with radiactive legacy waste from the 1950s and 60s. The University of Strathclyde has a strong prortfolio in grouting techniques. For the LFLS the preferred grouting technique at present is a colloidal silica based grout due to its low viscosity, low toxicity and chemical inertness. There, are however still uncertainties how such a grout would be have within waste forms and how any radionuclides (e.g. Sr-90, Cs-137) behave during and after the injection and gelling of colloidal silica based grouts.

Since November 2019, I am a Research Fellow and Co-I on the EPSRC funded Plasma Accelerators for Nuclear Applications and Materials Analyses (PANAMA) project. PANAMA is a collaboration between the departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Physics at the University of Strathclyde to utilize the laser wakefield generated particle and X-ray beams produced at the SCAPA facility to develop diffraction, spectroscopy and tomography analyses for the civil nuclear energy sectors. My main role within PANAMA is to collaborate with the department of Physics in the design of the PANAMA facility and to lead and develop the respective research programmes to utilize such facility. Such research can include anything from the behaviour of waste materials in the environment to mechanistic understanding of beam damage utilizing pump-probe capabilities of laser wakefield particle and X-ray beams.

Finally, I am always interested in developing collaborations and supporting prospective PhD students wishing to joing the University of Strathclyde.

Nucleation, growth and transformation processes of (nano-particulate) mineral phases in aquatic environments in natural and engineered environments

Surface chemical and thermodynamic control on the solubility and mobility of metals (e.g. contaminants) in natural and engineered environments

The effects of environmental engineering / (bio)remediation strategies on the geochemistry and surface chemistry of inorganic contaminants

The influence of microbial and biological activity on the formation and transformation of mineral phases in aquatic environments