The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy awarded 23 Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF) Rapid Turnaround Experiment (RTE) projects June 26. The 2025 first RTE awards, totaling approximately $1.4 million, were granted to 23 principal investigators from different institutions including universities, national laboratories and industry. Each project supports the advancement of nuclear energy.
These RTE projects aim to enhance the understanding of material behavior under irradiation, which is crucial for the development of more resilient materials for nuclear applications. This collection of research projects, supported by the Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy's Nuclear Science User Facilities program, focuses on improving the performance and safety of materials in nuclear environments. Key studies include mitigating stress corrosion in stainless steel, enhancing reactor performance of SiC, and investigating the irradiation effects on advanced alloys.
PI Name | Institution | Project Title |
Osman El Atwani | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory | Exploring radiation tolerance in novel FeCrVZrAl high entropy alloys for advanced fission reactor applications |
Pascal Bellon | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Radiation-induced segregation at coherent twin boundaries in 316L steels after low dose proton irradiation |
Lei (Raymond) Cao | The Ohio State University | Investigating Ultraviolet Sensitive Avalanche Photodiodes by Ion Implantation in 4H-Silicon Carbide for High Temperature Sensing |
Sunil Chakrapani | Michigan State University | Acoustoplasticity induced microstructural modification to mitigate stress corrosion cracking in stainless steel 316L |
Zhangxian Deng | Boise State University | Effect of irradiation on 3D printed magnetostrictive materials |
Nicholas Fassino | Oklo Inc. | Thermal Diffusivity Characterization of Irradiated Minor Actinide-Bearing Metal Fuel Pin G591 from the EBR-II X501 Experiment |
Elizabeth Getto | United States Naval Academy | Mechanical and microstructure properties of an optimized ODS alloy under neutron irradiation |
Hannah Jones | University of Oxford | Mechanical Properties Characterization and Atom Probe Tomography Preparation of BOR60 Neutron Irradiated T91 Steel Samples for Surrogate Ion-Irradiation Comparison |
Toni Karlsson | Idaho National Laboratory | Property measurement of LiF-NaF-ZrF4-UF4 |
Rory Kennedy | Idaho National Laboratory | Improved In-reactor Performance of SiC by n-Doping with Phosphorus and Nitrogen Through Neutron Transmutation Doping and Pre-Irradiation Chemical Vapor Deposition |
Seungsu Kim | Texas A&M University | Evaluating the Radiation Tolerance of ZrC under Extreme Irradiation Conditions |
Konstantina Lambrinou | University of Huddersfield | Assessing the Irradiation-Assisted Hydrothermal Degradation of Bulk GB Engineered SiC |
Elliot Marrero | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Inter-Phase Localized Fracture: A New Mechanism for RPV Embrittlement |
Bao-Phong Nguyen | University of Florida | Probing the Effects of Temperature, Radiation, and Fuel Cladding Chemical Interaction on Irradiated HT-9 Cladding via In-Situ Micro-Tensile Testing |
Paul Ohodnicki | University of Pittsburgh | Elevated temperature gamma irradiation of optical fibers sensors for spent nuclear fuel dry cask storage system canister structural health monitoring applications |
Ramprashad Prabhakaran | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory | Atom probe tomography of HT-9 to evaluate the effect of neutron irradiation temperature, alloying element and heat treatment |
Allison Probert | University of Florida | Understanding Early Redistribution Dynamics in U-20Pu-10Zr Fuels Through EPMA |
Yadukrishnan Sasikumar | Oak Ridge National Laboratory | Characterization of Pellet-Cladding Interface Damage of Spent Nuclear Fuel during Fatigue Bending |
Federico Scurti | Pennsylvania State University | Elucidating the Role of Polymeric Coatings in Optical Fiber Sensors under Neutron Irradiation |
Sohail Shah | Idaho National Laboratory | High resolution characterization of U3Si2 fuel rodlets using Transmission Electron Microscopy and Atom Probe Tomography |
Mitra Taheri | Johns Hopkins University | Interplay of Nanoscale Heterogeneities and Radiation Damage in Compositionally Complex Alloys |
Matthew Weinstein | TerraPower | Determination of Swelling Across Temperatures in Vanadium Alloys Without Transmutation |
Guang Yang | Idaho National Laboratory | High-Temperature In-Situ Micro-Tensile Testing of FFTF-Irradiated HT9 Cladding from U-10Zr Fuel Pins |
NSUF competitively selected these projects from a pool of high-quality RTE proposal submissions. NSUF recipients do not receive direct financial support. Instead, recipients are awarded access to state-of-the-art capabilities such as experimental irradiation testing, post-irradiation examination, and beamlines. Technical assistance for the design and execution of projects is provided at no cost to the recipients.
Click here to find current and past awards.
The Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF) is the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy's only designated nuclear energy user facility. Through peer-reviewed proposal processes, the NSUF provides researchers access to neutron, ion, and gamma irradiations, post-irradiation examination and beamline capabilities at Idaho National Laboratory and a diverse mix of university, national laboratory and industry partner institutions.
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