“The skilled and motivated colleagues make Studsvik a fantastic place to work”

It was obvious to Martin Bjurman to choose a technical university, as a kid he was always curious to explore the domestic gadgets and electronics to his parents delight. He finished his master’s degree in 2004 after spending one year as exchange student in his mother’s homeland Holland. Martin joined Studsvik in 2011 after four years as materials engineer at Forsmark NPP and three years as research engineer within Vattenfall. Today his role is specialist within materials aging. 

Can you describe a typical week for you?

“Normally I spend two days each week managing the lab related parts of my projects. In our facility we have a large variety of autoclaves and mechanical testing equipment for both active and inactive testing and there are always new challenges to be addressed. These types of experiments require a lot of planning, analysis anddocumentation, so the remaining days I either spend on these tasks at Studsvik’s local office in Stockholm or work on my PhD thesis at the Royal Institute of Technology.”

Describe something Studsvik has supported a customer with that you are especially proud of.

“The work we do on evaluation of microstructure with respect to interaction between thermal aging and irradiation effects. These data are key input for the industry to understand the limiting factors and what actions are required. In 2020 Studsvik is planning to launch Studsvik Materials Integrity Lifetime Extension (SMILE), an international OECD/NEA project where the utilities, regulators and research organizations will get experimental data to benchmark the materials models for the aging nuclear fleet.”

Tell us a great thing about Studsvik?

“As experimentalists, the fact that we do our tests on real materials taken from commercial nuclear reactors in combination with all resources and utilizing a large variety of equipment is really unique. This, in combination with all skilled and motivated colleagues, makes Studsvik a fantastic place to work in. “

What is innovation to you and how does it influence your work in Studsvik?

“I think innovation comes when you are open for new ideas and not only focusing on the difficulties. You must have the ability to look beyond the problem and really understand what you want to achieve with your solution. With the complexity of performing advanced testing on highly radioactive materials the teams in Studsvik have proven our innovative thinking in many customer projects over the years.”