Dr Clare Thorpe

MEarthSci Geology (1st Class Honours)

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

David Clarke/EPSRC Fellow

Profile photo of Clare Thorpe
Profile picture of Profile photo of Clare Thorpe
clare.thorpe@sheffield.ac.uk

Full contact details

Dr Clare Thorpe
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Sir Robert Hadfield Building
Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 3JD
Profile

Dr. Clare Thorpe holds a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship and a Lectureship in Nuclear Materials within the Materials Science and Engineering department. Her research group is an integral part of the Immobilisation Science Laboratory, focusing on exploring the interactions between materials and their environment, particularly particularly glasses and vitrified radioactive wastes.

Dr. Thorpe started work at the University of Sheffield as a postdoctoral researcher on the US DOE funded project GLAD (Glass Leaching Assessment for Disposability) before securing an EPSRC David Clarke Research Fellowship in 2019 titled "Durability of vitrified radioactive waste in complex natural environments," and a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship titled "Microbes, minerals and materials heterogeneity; how (bio)geochemical processes affect the behaviour of glassy material" in 2023.

Prior to joining the University of Sheffield, Dr. Thorpe completed a degree in Earth Sciences (2004-2008) and a PhD in the "Biogeochemistry of radioactively contaminated land" (2008-2012) from the University of Manchester. Following this, two Sellafield Ltd sponsored postdoctoral research positions were undertaken by Dr. Thorpe, working towards bioremediation strategies for sediment contaminated with radionuclides.

In addition to the Royal Society and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, who awarded Dr. Thorpe's fellowships, her research has been supported by the US Department of Energy, Sellafield Ltd, Nuclear Waste Services/Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, and the National Nuclear Laboratory. Dr. Thorpe sits on the Royal Society of Chemistry Radiochemistry Group Committee and UK Nuclear Academics Meeting Committee.

Alongside Dr. Thorpe's scientific career, she is a high-latitude sailor, dinghy racer, and mother.

Research interests

Dr. Thorpe's overarching research aim is to understand the behaviour of materials, and particularly glasses, in complex natural environments. Understanding material-solution interactions in these systems requires an interdisciplinary approach involving aqueous geochemistry, solid state chemistry, metal redox cycling, geomicrobiology, mineralogy, and glass chemistry.

Dr. Thorpe's research interests are currently centred on the following themes:

  1. Vitrified radioactive waste durability: Development of durable glasses for immobilising radioactive elements and the use of laboratory scale tests to estimate the medium and long-term behaviour of these wasteforms and the radionuclides they contain.
  2. Natural analogue studies for deep and shallow geological disposal: Validation of glass dissolution behaviour observed in the laboratory against that observed in long-term field experiments and natural analogue sites. By studying the alteration from shipwreck glasses, industrial slags and archaeological glasses, information can be gained regarding glass behaviour under a variety of geochemical conditions. In parallel, Dr. Thorpe is the custodian of several long term glass alteration experiments established by the University of Sheffield to study the behaviour of simulant nuclear waste glasses exposed in natural alkaline environments over several decades.
  3. Impact of microbiology on glass dissolution: Understanding if and how microbes can affect the dissolution of glasses both directly, through colonisation and element sequestration, or indirectly, through changes to the surrounding environment resulting from microbial metabolism. It is possible that some elements contained in glasses may act as biocides whereas others may be beneficial nutrients.
  4. Evolution of glass alteration layers: Dr. Thorpe is interested in the evolution of glass alteration layers over time and how their chemistry and mineralogy can change depending on both the glass composition and the chemistry of the environment.
Publications

Journal articles

Conference proceedings papers

Research group

PhD Students

Daniel Parkes, Characterisation and durability of thermally treated ILW (TRANSCEND). 

Rachel Crawford, the dissolution of vitrified nuclear waste forms as a function of groundwater composition; the effect of iron on UK HLW glass durability. (GREEN CDT (EPSRC)

Jenny Ayling, the dissolution of vitrified nuclear waste forms as a function of groundwater composition; the effect alkali and alkali earth cations on glass durability. (NDA/NNL)

Garry Manifold, Alteration of vitrified radioactive waste in low temperature natural environments: a natural analogue approach. (NWS/NDA)

Grants

Active grants:

  • 2023-2028: Centre of Expertise for Thermal and Immobilisation (Sellafield Ltd.) 
  • 2024 – 2032: Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship Microbes, minerals and materials heterogeneity; how (bio)geochemical processes affect the behaviour of glassy material (Royal Society)
  • 2016-2026: Project GLAD (Glass leaching assessment for disposability) (US Department of Energy)
  • 2020-2024: PhD Studentship: Alteration of vitrified radioactive waste in low temperature natural environments: a natural analogue approach (NWS – RSO).

Past grants:

  • 2019-2020: Royal Society of Chemistry Research Fund: what can shipwreck glasses tell us about radioactive waste (RSC).
  • 2019-2023: EPSRC David Clarke Fellowship: Durability of vitrified radioactive waste in complex natural environments (EPSRC).
  • 2016: Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland Early Career Bursary: The Ballidon Glass Burial Project from a Geochemist’s Perspective
  • 2014-2015: Knowledge Transfer project: feasibility and longevity of bioremediation at Sellafield. (EPSRC/Sellafield Ldt)
  • 2015: University of Manchester ‘Seed corn’ funding to investigate the use of PET-CT in imaging microbial processes
  • 2012-2013: Knowledge Transfer project: column studies towards the feasibility of bioremediation (EPSRC/Sellafield Ltd)
Professional activities and memberships
  • Member of Royal Society of Chemistry
  • Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry Radiochemistry Group Committee 
  • Member of the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland
  • Fellow of Higher Education