Olympic 2012 Substation, Stratford, London

In 2007 NORD were appointed to work with the Olympic Delivery Authority to develop a strong contextual approach to a key utility building within the Olympic Park. The building is not designed as an event venue in its own right, but as part of a number of buildings that form the fabric of the Olympic site itself; having permanency, weight and dignity. The utility structures are being developed to consider a common palette of reference materials where these relate to their use and location Awards and reviews: Article In Brick Bulletin. May 2010 Electricity Substation wins RIBA Award. May 2010 Electricity Substation May 2010 wins Scottish Design Award for best Regeneration Project. Electricity Substation shortlisted for RIBA Stirling Prize. NORD's Substation for the 2012 Olympics makes the 19 strong Long List for the Stirling Prize.July 2010 The Olympic SubStation shortlisted in the Best Public and Innovative Use categories for the Brick Awards.July 2010. Awards night on Wednesday 3 November in London. Article in Dzine, Ibstock, Autumn 2010, pp12-13 Station to station: the new power generation. Includes Nord's olympic power substation. Article in The Independent 5th August 2010

Reactivating Dynamic Architecture: A Strategy to Inject Relevant Bodily Imagery Back into Architecture

The building-body analogy, which used to be crucial in the designing of buildings, to the exception of a few, is fading. This broken link leaves us with a melancholic yearning; a sense of loss. Reactivating Dynamic Architecture readdresses the use of the body in architecture by the application of an intervening design process. The processes we undertake in order to design architecture are too often assumed, and go unchallenged. In this thesis the design process is seen as a protagonist for change. Representation, both architectural and artistic, is a central theme as the thesis guides images of the human body through abstraction. Both the dynamic body and fragmented body are investigated for their potential to create a relevant expression for the human condition. Dalibor Vesely’s theory of the positive fragment is identified as a way forward for bodily fragmentation, and Analytical Cubism, which resonated with this theory, is explored. The thesis initially moves through the investigation of historical interpretations of the body before drawing on contemporary theory. Past depictions of the fragmented and dynamic body are assessed in order to establish what they can offer us for future analysis. A representational mode is established, based on Cubism’s methods, from here the transition from drawings to architecture begins. Rowe and Slutzky’s text Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal is used to unravel the intricacies of Le Corbusier’s Villa at Garches, and their reading of this building is used to channel a successful conversion process. The resulting architecture was created as a trial of the strategy and is posed as an expression, or speculation, for what can be achieved through this method. Three different scale interventions are explored within the chosen site of Ava Train Station, Wellington. Carlo Scarpa’s techniques guide the last transition to architecture, as his processes are recognised for their ability to fold meaning into design. The described design process gathers complexity as it gains momentum; there is much to negotiate through the realms of bodily perception, modern art and architectural representation. However, the architectural expression carries that density of meaning in a simple expressio

Predicting the cost of the consequences of a large nuclear accident in the UK

Nuclear accidents have the potential to lead to significant off-site effects that require actions to minimise the radiological impacts on people. Such countermeasures may include sheltering, evacuation, restrictions on the sale of locally-grown food, and long-term relocation of the population amongst others. Countries with nuclear facilities draw up emergency preparedness plans, and put in place such provisions as distributing instructions and iodine prophylaxis to the local population. Their plans are applied in simulated exercises on a regular basis. The costs associated with emergency preparedness and the safety provisions to reduce the likelihood of an accident, and/or mitigate the consequences, are justified on the basis of the health risks and accident costs averted. There is, of course, only limited actual experience to indicate the likely costs so that much of the costing of accidents is based on calculations. This paper reviews the methodologies used, in particular the approach that has been developed in the UK, to appraise the costs of a hypothetical nuclear accident. Results of analysing a hypothetical nuclear accident at a fictitious reactor site within the United Kingdom are discussed in relation to the accidents at Three Mile Island 2, Chernobyl and Fukushima Dai-ichi

Mechanical Properties of Advanced Gas-Cooled Reactor Stainless Steel Cladding After Irradiation

The production of helium bubbles in advanced gas-cooled reactor (AGR) cladding could represent a significant hazard for both the mechanical stability and long-term storage of such materials. However, the high radioactivity of AGR cladding after operation presents a significant barrier to the scientific study of the mechanical properties of helium incorporation, said cladding typically being analyzed in industrial hot cells. An alternative non-active approach is to implant He2+ into unused AGR cladding material via an accelerator. Here, a feasibility study of such a process, using sequential implantations of helium in AGR cladding steel with decreasing energy is carried out to mimic the buildup of He (e.g., 50 appm) that would occur for in-reactor AGR clad in layers of the order of 10 lm in depth, is described. The implanted sample is subsequently analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, nanoindentation, atomic force and ultrasonic force microscopies. As expected, the irradiated zones were affected by implantation damage (<1 dpa). Nonetheless, such zones undergo only nanoscopic swelling and a small hardness increase (10%), with no appreciable decrease in fracture strength. Thus, for this fluence and applied conditions, the integrity of the steel cladding is retained despite He2+ implantation

Financing renewable energy: Who is financing what and why it matters

Successful financing of innovation in renewable energy (RE) requires a better understanding of the relationship between different types of finance and their willingness to invest in RE. We study the ‘direction’ of innovation that financial actors create. Focusing on the deployment phase of innovation, we use Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) data to construct a global dataset of RE asset finance flows from 2004 to 2014. We analyze the asset portfolios of different RE technologies financed by different financial actors according to their size, skew and level of risk. We use entropy-based indices to measure skew, and construct a heuristic index of risk that varies with the technology, time, and country of investment to measure risk. We start by comparing the behavior of private and public types of finance and then disaggregate further along 11 different financial actors (e.g. private banks, public banks, and utilities) and 11 types of RE technologies that are invested in (e.g. different kinds of power generation from solar radiation, wind or biomass). Financial actors vary considerably in the composition of their investment portfolio, creating directions towards particular technologies. Public financial actors invest in portfolios with higher risk technologies, also creating a direction; they also increased their share in total investment dramatically over time. We use these preliminary results to formulate new research questions about how finance affects the directionality of innovation, and the implications for RE policies

The centre cannot (always) hold:Examining pathways towards energy system de-centralisation

This is the final version. Available on open access from Elsevier via the DOI in this record'Energy decentralisation' means many things to many people. Among the confusion of definitions and practices that may be characterised as decentralisation, three broad causal narratives are commonly (implicitly or explicitly) invoked. These narratives imply that the process of decentralisation: i) will result in appropriate changes to rules and institutions, ii) will be more democratic and iii) is directly and causally linked to energy system decarbonisation. The principal aim of this paper is to critically examine these narratives. By conceptualising energy decentralisation as a distinct class of sociotechnical transition pathway, we present a comparative analysis of energy decentralisation in Cornwall, South West UK, the French island of Ushant and the National Electricity Market in Australia. We show that, while energy decentralisation is often strongly correlated with institutional change, increasing citizen agency in the energy system, and enhanced environmental performance, these trends cannot be assumed as given. Indeed, some decentralisation pathways may entrench incumbent actors' interests or block rapid decarbonisation. In particular, we show how institutional context is a key determinant of the link between energy decentralisation and normative goals such as democratisation and decarbonisation. While institutional theory suggests that changes in rules and institutions are often incremental and path-dependent, the dense legal and regulatory arrangements that develop around the electricity sector seem particularly resistant to adaptive change. Consequently, policymakers seeking to pursue normative goals such as democratisation or decarbonisation through energy decentralisation need to look beyond technology towards the rules, norms and laws that constitute the energy governance system.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)European Structural and Investment FundINTERREG V FC

Comparing nuclear power trajectories in Germany and the UK: from ‘regimes' to ‘democracies’ in sociotechnical transitions and Discontinuities

This paper focuses on arguably the single most striking contrast in contemporary major energy politics in Europe (and even the developed world as a whole): the starkly differing civil nuclear policies of Germany and the UK. Germany is seeking entirely to phase out nuclear power by 2022. Yet the UK advocates a ‘nuclear renaissance’, promoting the most ambitious new nuclear construction programme in Western Europe.Here,this paper poses a simple yet quite fundamental question: what are the particular divergent conditions most strongly implicated in the contrasting developments in these two countries. With nuclear playing such an iconic role in historical discussions over technological continuity and transformation, answering this may assist in wider understandings of sociotechnical incumbency and discontinuity in the burgeoning field of‘sustainability transitions’. To this end, an ‘abductive’ approach is taken: deploying nine potentially relevant criteria for understanding the different directions pursued in Germany and the UK. Together constituted by 30 parameters spanning literatures related to socio-technical regimes in general as well as nuclear technology in particular, the criteria are divided into those that are ‘internal’ and ‘external’ to the ‘focal regime configuration’ of nuclear power and associated ‘challenger technologies’ like renewables. It is ‘internal’ criteria that are emphasised in conventional sociotechnical regime theory, with ‘external’ criteria relatively less well explored. Asking under each criterion whether attempted discontinuation of nuclear power would be more likely in Germany or the UK, a clear picture emerges. ‘Internal’ criteria suggest attempted nuclear discontinuation should be more likely in the UK than in Germany– the reverse of what is occurring. ‘External’ criteria are more aligned with observed dynamics –especially those relating to military nuclear commitments and broader ‘qualities of democracy’. Despite many differences of framing concerning exactly what constitutes ‘democracy’, a rich political science literature on this point is unanimous in characterising Germany more positively than the UK. Although based only on a single case,a potentially important question is nonetheless raised as to whether sociotechnical regime theory might usefully give greater attention to the general importance of various aspects of democracy in constituting conditions for significant technological discontinuities and transformations. If so, the policy implications are significant. A number of important areas are identified for future research, including the roles of diverse understandings and specific aspects of democracy and the particular relevance of military nuclear commitments– whose under-discussion in civil nuclear policy literatures raises its own questions of democratic accountability

NMV estimation for state-dependent discrete-time systems

A state-dependent model and nonlinear operator based approach to estimation is introduced for discrete-time multi-channel systems including transport delay elements. The problem involves a signal entering a communications channel with nonlinearities. The measurements are assumed to be corrupted by a colored noise signal which is correlated with the signal to be estimated. The communications channel may include either static or dynamic nonlinearities represented by a general nonlinear operator and/or a state-dependent model form. The theoretical solution does not involve empirical assumptions or linearization approximations. The resulting algorithm is simple to derive and to implement