Profile

I’ve loved science for years, mainly because I’m a massive petrol (and electric) head growing up watching motor racing with my dad, and racing slot cars! However I am also the kind of science fiction fan that regularly ends up in the dark reaches of Wookiepedia or the 40K Lexicanum at 3 am. I do also love sport, growing up playing rugby and underwater hockey, doing karate, and watching football (West Ham and Nott’s County, because someone has to) with my dad and brother.

I would tell you my favorite band/song, but I doubt you want to read a small novel, so I’ll tell a cool story. Just before I was born, my parents when to go and see Pink Floyd at Earl’s Court on the Division Bell tour, so I claim that was the first concert I ever went to. My favorite book, an easier affair: Under the Wire, the autobiography of William Ash, the pilot that Steve McQueen’s character in the Great Escape was based off.

Finally, I currently live in Newbury on my own, which is great because my girlfriend and beloved West Ham United are only a train ride away! Plus, it means I get to work at a site that was once a research facility!

I’ve spent the last four years in the industry learning the environmental ropes, working at Dungeness, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Dounreay, Energus and Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power station. After my travels, I am now working for Magnox Limited, as a project Environmental Engineer at the Harwell Research Site, doing a huge range of environmental protection work!

Harwell was the UK’s first nuclear research site, being the home of the first experiments in nuclear power, and the UK’s first nuclear reactor. The reactors and radiochemistry (the science of working with radioactive elements/chemicals) facilities at Harwell were largely built in the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s and included some of our earliest experiments. As a result, it includes some of the most unique experiments undertaken in the history of the British science sector. The site has been work to decommission since the 1990’s and as a result the majority of the are that the site sat on has since been given to the Harwell Science Campus, who have built more cool facilities to do even cooler science. Currently, the site is focusing on some of its biggest remaining nuclear / environmental challenges, needing some unique thinking to manage these issues.

The work I do revolves around a mixture of day to day environmental protection work, assisting in the management of the site’s environmental permits (issued by the Environment Agency), and supporting some of the major projects on the site. This includes working on managing fugitive emissions to air and water, working with animals (including bats) and helping to manage issues with chemicals. A big part of my work involves designing procedures for work on site that gets people thinking about the environment at as early a stage as possible, to ensure adequate protection is included within work packages. I also do inspections and audits around site to make sure things are done correctly, and locate any possible health, safety and environment issues.

In addition to my day to day environmental works, I undertake a large amount of work on the site as a Mental Health First aider, and as a sustainability co-ordinator. Both of these roles allow me to undertake some great work supporting my team with their mental health, and making that the work that we do every day more and more sustainable. This includes all elements of the “triple bottom line” – Environmental, Social and Economic Sustainability. I am continuing to work towards chartership with the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment, the professional body for environmental management professionals.

My Typical Day

Typically I wake up at 07:00 to aim to get into the office at 08:15 every day, including the days that I work from home (Friday). Typically first thing I have a cup of coffee, and alongside my safety and quality colleagues I join the Daily Event Reporting Meeting. Here we discuss all of the events that have happened around the fleet and where we need to, we give actions and pass info to our teams. After this we typically have a catch up to see what’s been happening and who watched what on TV. This time is very useful as it allows me to get to know my team, develop useful bonds with them and get an early heads up on any additional work coming my way. I’ll contact each of the four projects I work with and get an update, check my emails and will often use this chance to check the legislative update service that we use for any new legislation.

After this point my day can be highly varied. Doing an environment role on site can be very reactionary, reacting to anything that has gone wrong, any new requests for help and in some cases any rapid changes in legislation. One example of this is from my previous job. At the start of a week I planned to re-write a document but on the Monday there was a generator oil leak that I spent the day managing the clean up for, and the rest of the month was spent reacting to a new piece of law that  was due to come in.

Another part of my role involves designing new systems, which can take several months to get right. Another example from my previous job was when I designed a process for getting bins to different teams on site, this took about 3 months to do, but really helped a lot of people.

Day to day, some of my favourite things to do include taking training courses on environment topics, writing things for people to read to help them (toolbox talks), doing inspections and audits and giving advice to different members of staff, including senior project management staff. This sounds very desk based, but the inspections and audits let me go to different areas of the site and see some really cool things, such as walking the radiochemistry facilities, exploring the linear accelerator or one of the research reactor facility. Additionally there are one-off jobs I get to do that are really hands on and fun, like taking groundwater samples which involves using a bucket to empty boreholes of water.

This goes on throughout the day and I have 30 minutes for lunch as well as the odd tea break. On top of this I try and do some professional development work, which includes applying for conferences and training courses, running my small business, and doing STEM ambassador work.

At 16:35 I turn off my laptop, change out of my PPE and drive home, and that is a day in the life of the Environmental Engineer.