Professor Julia West MBE has a PhD in Geomicrobiology and is Principal of West Consult; Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of Manchester and was an Honorary Research Associate at the British Geological Survey.
With more than 35 years’ experience working on diverse projects relating to how humans use the geological environment, particularly for waste disposal, Julia is internationally recognised not only for her broad experience in radioactive waste management and carbon capture and storage (CCS), but also for her ground-breaking geomicrobiological, ecological and natural analogue studies.
Professor West has also pioneered cross comparisons between radioactive waste and CCS technologies, has provided advice and expertise to national and international organisations and has long experience in advisory groups and programme committees. Julia was appointed to the UK Government’s Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) and quite soon thereafter became Deputy Chair, a role she held until 2019.
Julia also has a great interest in geoscience communication, lecturing and writing on this topic, particularly in the context of radioactive waste disposal and was a British Association for the Advancement of Science Media Fellow with the BBC Radio Science Unit.
Professor West is the author/co-author of over 200 technical papers, reports, articles, scientific papers and book chapters.
SELECTED RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Books
WEST, J.M. Shaw, R. P. and Pearce, J.M. (2011). Environmental Issues in the Geological Disposal of Carbon Dioxide and Radioactive Waste. In: Geological Disposal of Carbon Dioxide and Radioactive Waste: A Comparative assessment. Editor: F. L. Toth. Advances in Global Change Research, Vol 44. Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg. pp 81-102. doi: 10.1007/978-90-481-8712-6
WEST, J.M. and McKinley, L. (2007). Building confidence in the safe disposal of radioactive waste. In: ‘Deep geological disposal of radioactive waste’ Editors: W.A. Alexander and L. McKinley. Elsevier, Amsterdam, Netherlands 227 – 249.
WEST, J.M. and McKinley, I.G. (2002). The geomicrobiology of radioactive waste disposal. In: The Encyclopedia of Environmental Microbiology (Editor G. Bitton), John Wiley. 2661-2674
Scientific Publications
McKinley, I.G., West, J.M. and Hardie, S.M.L. 2021. Risk management for pandemics: a novel approach. Sustainability Science, doi.org/10.1007/s11625-021-00999-8.
Gwosdz, S., WEST, J.M., Jones, D., Rakoczy, J., Green, K., Barlow, T., Bloth, M., Smith, K., Steven, M.D. and Kruger, M. 2016. Long-term CO2 injection and its impact on near-surface microbiology. FEMS Microbiology Ecology. DOI: 10.1093/femsec/fiw193
Smith, S.L., Rizoulis, A., WEST, J.M. and Lloyd, J.R. 2016. The Microbial Ecology of a Hyper-Alkaline Spring, and Impacts of an Alkali-Tolerant Community During Sandstone Batch and Column Experiments Representative of a Geological Disposal Facility for Intermediate-Level Radioactive Waste. Geomicrobiology J. 33 (6) 1-13. DOI: 10.1080/01490451.2015.1049677
WEST, J.M., Jones, D.G., Annunziatellis, A., Barlow, T.S., Beaubien, S.E., Bond, A., Breward, N., Coombs, P., de Angelis, D., Gardner, A., Gemeni, V., Graziani, S., Green, K.A., Gregory, S., Gwosdz, S., Hannis, S., Kirk, K., Koukouzas, N., Kruger, M., Libertini, S., Lister, T.S., Lombardi, S., Metcalfe, R., Pearce, J.M., Smith, K.L., Steven, M.D., Thatcher, K. and Ziogou, F. (2015). Comparison of the impacts of elevated CO2 soil gas concentrations on selected European terrestrial environments. International J. Greenhouse Gas Control, 42, 357-371. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2015.07.020
Jones, D.G., Beaubien, S.E., Blackford, J.C., Foekema, E.M., Lions J, De Vittor, C., WEST, J.M., Widdicombe S, Hauton C and Querios A.M. 2015. Developments since 2005 in understanding potential environmental impacts of CO2 leakage from geological storage. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control. doi:10.1016/j.ijggc.2015.05.032
Wragg, J., Harrison, H., WEST, J.M., Yoshikawa, H. (2012). Comparison of microbiological influences on the transport properties of intact mudstone and sandstone and its relevance to the geological disposal of radioactive waste. Mineralogical Magazine. 76(8), 387-396 doi: 10.1180/minmag.2012.076.8.38.
WEST, J.M., McKinley, I.G., Palumbo-Roe, B., and Rochelle, C.A. (2011). Potential impact of CO2 storage on subsurface microbial ecosystems and implication for groundwater quality. Energy Procedia 4, pp 3163-3170. doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2011.02.231
Chapman, N.A., WEST, J.M. and Bruno, J. (2011). The Meiringen Initiative: CCS and radwaste make friends. Geoscientist, 21, pp 12-17. http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/page10374.html.
Harrison, H., Wagner, D., Yoshikawa, H., WEST, J.M., Milodowski, A.E., Sasaki, Y., Turner, G., Lacinska, A., Holyoake, S., Harrington, J., Noy, D., Coombs, P., Bateman, K. and Aoki, K. (2011). Microbiological influences on fracture surfaces of intact mudstone and the implications for geological disposal of radioactive waste. Mineralogical Magazine, 75, pp 2449-2466. doi: 10.1180/minmag.2011.075.4.2449.
Krüger, M, M., Jones, D., Frerichs. J., Oppermann, B. I., WEST. J.M., Coombs, P., Green, K., Barlow, T., Lister, B., Stutt, M. and Möller, I. (2011). Effects of elevated CO2 concentrations on the vegetation and microbial populations at a terrestrial CO2 vent at Laacher See, Germany. International J. Greenhouse Gas Control, 5, 1093-1098. doi. 10.1016/j.iggc.2011.05.002.
Coombs, P., Wagner, D., Bateman, K., Harrison, H., Milodowski, A.E., Noy, D. and WEST, J.M. (2010). The role of biofilms in subsurface transport processes. Q.J. Engineering Geology 43, 131-139. doi:10.1144/1470-9236/08-029.
Maul, P.R., Metcalfe, R., Pearce, J., Savage, D. and WEST, J.M. (2007). Performance assessments for the geological storage of carbon dioxide: Learning from the radioactive waste disposal experience. International J. Greenhouse Gas Control 1, 444-455. 10.1016/S1750-5836(07)00074-6.
Neal, F.B., McKinley, I.G., Smith, P.A., WEST, J.M., Johnson, L.H. and Kaku, K. (2004). Alternative repository concept Fiscal Year 2003: Project input from Nagra. Nagra Project Report 04-03. Commercial in Confidence.
WEST, J.M., McKinley, I.G. Neall, F. B. Rochelle, C.A. and Bateman, K. (2006). Microbiological effects on the cavern extended storage (CES) repository for radioactive waste. J Geochem Expl. 90 (1-2), 114-122. doi:10.1016/j.gexplo.2005.09.010.
Tuck, V.M., Edyvean, R.G.J., WEST, J.M., Bateman, K., Coombs, P., Milodowski, A.E. and McKervey, J.A. (2006). Biologically induced clay formation in subsurface granitic environments. J Geochem Explor 90 (1-2), 123-133. doi.org/10.1016/j.gexplo.2005.09.007.