Steven Bell
Senior scientist
Dr Steven Bell is a Principal Research Scientist and Science Area Lead in the Nuclear Metrology Group at NPL. Steven joined NPL in 2014, after spending four years at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the Detector Development Group.
Steven graduated from the University of Surrey with a BSc in Physics, an MSc in Radiation Detection and Instrumentation, and an Engineering Doctorate (EngD). His EngD thesis focused on the fabrication and characterisation of small-pixel CdZnTe X/γ-ray imaging detectors. He has been Work Package Lead on six European metrology research projects covering nuclear preparedness, radiation protection and nuclear decommissioning.
Steven’s work has focused on methods for trapping and separating hydrogen isotopes for tritium fuel-cycle applications in nuclear fusion. He is also developing beta-gamma coincidence measurement techniques for monitoring nuclear fuel. Steven is a member of BSI/NCE2 (Radiation protection and measurement), ISO/TC85/SC2/WG14 (Radiological protection: Air control and monitoring) and IEC/TC45/WG18 (Nuclear instrumentation: Mobile unmanned automated systems for nuclear and radiological applications).
He is Vice President of the International Committee for Radionuclide Metrology (ICRM) and Working Group Lead for Energy, Environment and Industry within the European Association of National Metrology Institutes (EURAMET) Technical Committee for Ionising Radiation (TC-IR).
Current research interests:
- Short-lived radioactive gas standards (radioxenon, radiokrypton, radioargon)
- Nuclear fuel and sub-criticality monitoring
- Nuclear weapons test monitoring (CTBT)
- Nuclear preparedness (air monitoring, UAV mounted detector systems, citizen science)
- C-14 laser spectrometry for GHG and NPP emission monitoring
- Tritium and hydrogen isotopologue separation and measurements for nuclear fusion industry