UKAEA partners with Oak Ridge National Laboratory

The £3m, five-year partnership aims to better understand the performance and behaviour of materials required for use in future commercial fusion power plants.

It will involve irradiating materials using neutrons at the ORNL High Flux Isotope Reactor, a DOE Office of Science user facility located in the United States. They will test these materials at ORNL and at UKAEA’s Materials Research Facility at Culham Campus, Oxfordshire.

A major challenge in harnessing fusion energy is developing materials to cope in extreme environments. This is because high energy neutrons and extreme temperatures can weaken or change the desirable mechanical, thermal, optical or electronic properties of materials, which can reduce the lifetime of fusion machines.

Research conducted will attempt to understand how certain materials respond to irradiation over extended periods, to increase the longevity of the materials used.

Dr Amanda Quadling, UKAEA’s director of materials research, said: “The partnership will allow UKAEA access to ORNL’s archive of existing irradiated materials, which include binary iron-chromium alloys, advanced steels, silicon carbide composites and copper alloys.