NSUF Article

NSUF awards Rapid Turnaround Experiment User Access Awards

Thursday, June 26, 2025 - RTE

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.

2025 1st call RTE award recipients


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.




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