Materials for fusion & fission power

Completed

Nuclear Fission and Fusion(Nuclear Fusion)
Nuclear Fission and Fusion(Nuclear Fission, Nuclear supporting technologies)

Basic and strategic applied research

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Metallurgy and Materials)

Not Cross-cutting

Dr SG Roberts
Materials
University of Oxford

Standard

EPSRC

01 December 2009

30 September 2015

70 months

£5,833,079

Materials sciences

South East

Materials, Mechanical and Medical Eng

Dr SG Roberts, Materials, University of Oxford

Dr D Armstrong, Materials, University of Oxford
Dr PAJ Bagot, Materials, University of Oxford
Professor SE Donnelly, Sch of Computing and Engineering, University of Huddersfield
Professor FPE Dunne, Materials, Imperial College London
Professor P Grant, Materials, University of Oxford
Dr S Lozano-Perez, Materials, University of Oxford
Dr EAL Marquis, Materials and Engineering, University of Michigan, USA
Professor G Smith, Materials, University of Oxford
Professor GJ Tatlock, Engineering, University of Liverpool
Dr AJ Wilkinson, Materials, University of Oxford

Project Contact, Rolls-Royce PLC
Project Contact, CEA (Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique), France
Project Contact, CCFE/UKAEA

Linked to grant EP/I007768/1

It has been predicted that by 2012 the UK's electricity generating capacity will no longer be enough to meet demand. Reliable new sources of multi-gigawatt electrical power will be vital for social stability and economic strength. Nuclear fusion and advanced fission power plants have been proposed, with possible years for operation in the range 2025 (advanced fission) to 2050 (fusion). Thesehavethe potential for large-scale, clean, CO2-free power generation for generations.However, theywill not be viable unless some very difficult materials science problems are solved. The structural materials from which the power plants' core components will be built must have high strength and toughness at high temperatures, and retain good properties for decades despite being subjected to radiationdamage from high-energy neutrons. The neutrons knock atoms from their positions, "scrambling" the materials' carefully-designed microstructures, and produce many small crystal defects which make the materials more brittle. The neutrons, unlike those in current nuclear power plants, have enough energy to cause transmutation reactions: this causes two problems. First, many elements ordinarily usedin strong alloys cannot be used, because their transmutation products are highly radioactive for thousands of years, so we must design new strong alloys using a very restricted range of elements. Second, helium is produced in most reactions, and adds to the embrittling effects of the radiation damage.There are no fast-neutron facilities, and even slow-neutron test reactors are very expensive to use and take years for a single "run". To develop the critical new materials quickly, we need to act now. We can use computer modelling of how the radiation-induced defects are formed, how they behave and how they interact to change material properties. Experimentally, ion irradiation can be used to produce the same damage types as from fast neutrons, in a few hoursand without producing hard-to-handle radioactive specimens; but the amount of material affected is tiny - a layer 1/1000 mm thick. We have developed new techniques to test specimens made in these thin layers, and can use advanced microscopy to look at the radiation damage. This project will develop modelling and experiment further, and use them together so that experiments provide information to modelsand test their predictions.Researchers at Oxford, Liverpool and Salford Universities, UKAEAFusion and the CEA will work together in a large project to form specialist small research teams developing innovative modelling and experimental methods, working on a problems critical to the applications of new alloys of steel and tungsten: how radiation damage can concentrate some elements at grain boundaries, making them brittle; how radiation effects on nanometre-sized oxide particles included in the alloys for high-temperature strength and to "soak up" helium and hydrogen.The project will make major advances in innovative experimental and modelling techniques operating at the "microstructural" scale where materials properties are determined, and it will verify the models'predictions against experimental data. Its success will significantly speed development of the new materials that are essential for the commercial realisation of fusion and new-generation fission power. It will help the UK to lead scientific developments in new materials and to train future experts for future fission and fusion programmes. The developments are also relevant to other important structural integrity issues (e.g. embrittlement,ductile-brittle transitions, stress corrosion cracking, and alloy strength).The project's leaders currently head world-leading research efforts in the areas which will form this integrated project. They are well-linked into the international fusion and UK fission communities, representatives of which will advise on the programme'sdirection andwill speedily implement its results

24/11/09