Seismic hazard assessment and understanding of continental deformation are hindered by unexplained slip-rate fluctuations on faults, associated with (a) temporal clusters of damaging earthquakes lasting 100s to 1000s of years, and (b) longer-term fault quiescence lasting tens to hundreds of millennia. We propose a new unified hypothesis explaining both (a) and (b), involving stress interactions between fault/shear-zones and neighbouring fault/shear-zones; however key data to test this are lacking. We propose measurements and modelling to test our hypothesis, which have the potential to quantify the processes that control continental faulting and fluctuations in the rates of expected earthquake occurrence, with high societal impact. Our aspiration is that cities and critical facilities worldwide will gain additional protection from seismic hazard through use of the calculations we pioneer herein. The background is that slip-rate fluctuations hinder understanding because they introduce uncertainty about whether specific faults are active or not. For example, a review in Japan of earthquake risk to critical facilities, such as the Tsuruga nuclear power plant (NPP), revealed a geological fault under a nuclear reactor (Chapman et al. 2014). The question that arose was whether the fault was active or not. Japan's Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) has guidelines defining fault activity, and considered the fault under the reactor to be active, evidenced by faulting in sediments <~125,000 years in age. The Japan Atomic Energy Power Company (JPAC) disagreed, following study by an independent team of geoscientists. In 2014, the Tsuruga NPP remained closed due to ongoing debate between the NRA and JPAC, with similar debates ongoing for other NPPs. We suggest that defining fault activity as simply "active" or "inactive" is unsatisfactory because it is debatable even amongst experts. In fact a fault that has not slipped in many millennia may, in reality, not be inactive, but instead may simply have a low slip-rate, with the capability to host a damaging earthquake after a long recurrence interval. Our breakthrough is we think slip-rate fluctuations over both timescales (a and b) are a continuum, sharing a common cause involving interaction between fault/shear-zones. For the first time, we provide calculations that describe this interaction, quantifying slip-rate fluctuations and seismic hazard in terms of probabilities. We show that slip during an earthquake cluster on a brittle fault in the upper crust occurs in tandem with high strain-rate on the viscous shear-zone underlying the fault. This deformation of the crust produces changes in differential stress on neighbouring fault/shear-zones. Viscous strain-rate is known to be proportional to differential stress, so, given data on slip-rate fluctuations one can calculate changes in differential stress, and then calculate implied changes to viscous strain-rates on receiver shear zones and slip-rates on their overlying brittle faults. We provide a quantified example covering several millennia, but lack data allowing a test over tens to hundreds of millennia. If we can verify our hypothesis over both timescales, through successful replication of measurements via modelling, we will have identified and quantified a hitherto unknown fundamental geological process. We will study the Athens region, Greece, where a special set of geological attributes allows us to measure and model slip-rate fluctuation over both time scales (a and b), the key data combination never achieved to date. We know of no other quantified explanation that links slip-rate fluctuations over the two timescales; the significance and impact of accomplishing this is that it has the potential to change the way we mitigate hazard for cities and critical facilities. Chapman et al. 2014, Active faults and nuclear power plants, EOS, 95, 4

A spin-polarised electron current has been widely investigated to realise new spintronic device application. For example, spin-transfer torque induced by a spin-polarised electron current offers a fundamental physical mechanism on current-induced magnetisation switching (CIMS) as well as domain-wall motion in a ferromagnetic (FM) nanowire. The spin-transfer torque was predicted by Berger and Slonczewski independently, and has been experimentally demonstrated. By spin-scattering layer insertion and shape modification for a giant magnetoresistive (GMR) nanopillar, a critical current density for switching has been reduced to satisfy a Gbit-scale requirement for a magnetic random access memory (MRAM), a 4-Mbit version of which has been introduced by Freescale (now EverSpin Technologies) in 2006. MRAM is expected to replace a Si-based RAM due to the non-volatility and the better thermal stability. Recently, coherent tunnelling in an Fe/MgO/Fe system has been predicted to achieve over 1000% tunnelling magnetoresistance (TMR) and experimentally observed in epitaxial/highly-oriented Fe(Co)/MgO/Fe(Co) junctions. Such coherent tunnelling has been implemented into a nano-pillar to demonstrate the CIMS with 160% TMR ratio at room temperature. By combining the large TMR ratio with the substantial decrease in critical current density down to 2.5x10^6 A/cm2, the requirement for beyond the Gbit-scale MRAM application is satisfied. Hence, government-initiatives have been applied to develop a commercial Gbit MRAM both in the USA and Japan.Recent development in nanometre-scale fabrication techniques will enable us to expand a vertical GMR nanopillar into a lateral configuration, consisting of ferromagnetic nanowires and a non-magnetic nanowire to bridge over the spin injector and detector, enabling precise control of dimensions. In such a lateral spin-valve configuration, spin-polarised electrons can be injected with an electron charge current (local geometry) and without a charge current (non-local geometry). Using non-local geometry pioneering work has been performed by Jedema et al., successfully demonstrating diffusive spin injection from a ferromagnetic Ni80Fe20 nano-electrode, spin accumulation in a non-magnetic Cu nano-wire and spin detection by another NiFe nano-electrode. They have further extended their study into ballistic spin injection by inserting an AlOx tunnel barrier (insulator, I) at the FM/non-magnet (NM) interfaces. Consequently non-local spin-valve systems have been extensively employed to achieve efficient spin injection by minimising interfacial scattering in both diffusive and ballistic contacts and also to detect both spin Hall and inverse spin Hall effects. This clearly indicates the advantages of the lateral device configurations.In this proposed project, we will employ a lateral spin-valve structure instead of a conventional nano-pillar to demonstrate efficient generation of a spin voltage and current, which is not associated with an electron-charge current and hence minimises the Joule heating. In our proposed devices, both a spin current and a spin-polarised electron-charge current will be used to detect the spin voltage/current generation in non-local and local measurement geometries, respectively by changing the measurement geometries. In the non-local geometry , a spin current can be injected efficiently into a non-magnet through a tunnel barrier and detected as a large spin voltage through a second tunnel barrier. This gives a large spin current through a metallic interface. Our proposed device will therefore act independently as a pure spin-voltage and spin-current source with high efficiency. The evaluation of the pure spin-voltage and current will reveal the fundamental mechanism of spin-current transport (without an electron charge), which will encourage further theoretical studies for better understanding of the spin current and will also lead a new type of device architecture.

Japan

During unusually warm greenhouse conditions of the Aptian to Cenomanian, several major perturbations in the global carbon cycle are reflected by black shale deposits and/or carbon isotope excursions (OAEs). To fully understand the ocean-climate dynamics of this greenhouse world, and the mechanistic drivers that propel ocean anoxia and deterioration of ecosystems, new radioisotopic dating, in parallel with a more geographically dispersed array of high-quality Cretaceous sedimentary records are essential. The Yezo Group (YG), Japan comprises Aptian to Maastrichtian sediment deposited in a high latitude Pacific Ocean-facing fore arc basin. Unlike other well-studied Lower Cretaceous sequences, e.g., the Vocontian Basin, France (VB), the YG contains rhyolitic tuffs amenable to precise U-Pb and 40Ar/39Ar dating. We propose to obtain new radioisotopic dates from the YG in concert with new osmium (Os) and carbon (C) isotope chemostratigraphy. This new chronology and chemostratigraphy can be exported and correlated to records from Tethys, including the VB for which we aim to generate new Os and C isotope chemostratigraphy and an astrochronologic age model focused on the critical onset interval of OAE1a. Our proposed research to update and improve the Lower Cretaceous time scale by integrating French and Japanese strata is designed to rectify critical time scale inaccuracies, and employ refined time scales and new proxy data to address fundamental questions concerning lithosphere-hydrosphere-biosphere interactions associated with major Cretaceous C-cycle perturbations such as OAEs.

Nuclear facilities require a wide variety of robotics capabilities, engendering a variety of extreme RAI challenges. NCNR brings together a diverse consortium of experts in robotics, AI, sensors, radiation and resilient embedded systems, to address these complex problems. In high gamma environments, human entries are not possible at all. In alpha-contaminated environments, air-fed suited human entries are possible, but engender significant secondary waste (contaminated suits), and reduced worker capability. We have a duty to eliminate the need for humans to enter such hazardous environments wherever technologically possible. Hence, nuclear robots will typically be remote from human controllers, creating significant opportunities for advanced telepresence. However, limited bandwidth and situational awareness demand increased intelligence and autonomous control capabilities on the robot, especially for performing complex manipulations. Shared control, where both human and AI collaboratively control the robot, will be critical because i) safety-critical environments demand a human in the loop, however ii) complex remote actions are too difficult for a human to perform reliably and efficiently. Before decommissioning can begin, and while it is progressing, characterization is needed. This can include 3D modelling of scenes, detection and recognition of objects and materials, as well as detection of contaminants, measurement of types and levels of radiation, and other sensing modalities such as thermal imaging. This will necessitate novel sensor design, advanced algorithms for robotic perception, and new kinds of robots to deploy sensors into hard-to-reach locations. To carry out remote interventions, both situational awareness for the remote human operator, and also guidance of autonomous/semi-autonomous robotic actions, will need to be informed by real-time multi-modal vision and sensing, including: real-time 3D modelling and semantic understanding of objects and scenes; active vision in dynamic scenes and vision-guided navigation and manipulation. The nuclear industry is high consequence, safety critical and conservative. It is therefore critically important to rigorously evaluate how well human operators can control remote technology to safely and efficiently perform the tasks that industry requires. All NCNR research will be driven by a set of industry-defined use-cases, WP1. Each use-case is linked to industry-defined testing environments and acceptance criteria for performance evaluation in WP11. WP2-9 deliver a variety of fundamental RAI research, including radiation resilient hardware, novel design of both robotics and radiation sensors, advanced vision and perception algorithms, mobility and navigation, grasping and manipulation, multi-modal telepresence and shared control. The project is based on modular design principles. WP10 develops standards for modularisation and module interfaces, which will be met by a diverse range of robotics, sensing and AI modules delivered by WPs2-9. WP10 will then integrate multiple modules onto a set of pre-commercial robot platforms, which will then be evaluated according to end-user acceptance criteria in WP11. WP12 is devoted to technology transfer, in collaboration with numerous industry partners and the Shield Investment Fund who specialise in venture capital investment in RAI technologies, taking novel ideas through to fully fledged commercial deployments. Shield have ring-fenced £10million capital to run alongside all NCNR Hub research, to fund spin-out companies and industrialisation of Hub IP. We have rich international involvement, including NASA Jet Propulsion Lab and Carnegie Melon National Robotics Engineering Center as collaborators in USA, and collaboration from Japan Atomic Energy Agency to help us carry out test-deployments of NCNR robots in the unique Fukushima mock-up testing facilities at the Naraha Remote Technology Development Center.