"Follow what you're passionate about" Dave Goddard, Fellow, NNL

Dave Goddard is a Fellow at NNL and a technical specialist in nuclear fuel manufacturing with over 25 years of experience supporting plants and fuel development in the UK.

Dave grew up in Cambridgeshire on a small holding with around 1,000 free range chickens! He studied Physics at Sheffield University – where he met his future wife. He now lives in Manchester with wife Jaddy and two children.

After university, Dave worked at AWE for six months before going on to do a PhD at the Corrosion and Protection Centre, UMIST, Manchester focussing on high temperature corrosion of superconductors.

After his PhD, Dave secured a job at British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) on the Springfields site. During his time there he transitioned from a scientist to a technical leader. He was recruited into company research laboratory – setting up research laboratory outside of the ‘core’ business areas. During this time, he did work with NASA, working on a meteorite to examine – even meeting the people from NASA.  

Dave has remained technical throughout his career and has more recently been heavily involved in the Government’s new nuclear innovation programme looking to develop the next generation of fuels for the next generation of reactors.

When Dave isn’t working on the next generation of nuclear fuels, he likes to run, and has an allotment where he grows his own fruit and vegetables.