<!--slider--><p>The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy’s Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF) program awarded 18 Super Rapid Turnaround Experiment (RTE) projects today that support the deployment of advanced reactors, development of advanced nuclear fuel cycles and the continued operation of the nation’s nuclear reactor fleet. Super RTE awards facilitate the advancement of nuclear science and technology by providing nuclear energy researchers with timely access to irradiation testing, post-irradiation examination and technical expertise provided through NSUF at no cost to the researchers.</p><p>The fiscal year (FY) 2025 Super RTE awards were granted to 18 principal investigators from 12 different institutions, including universities, national laboratories and industries. The competitively selected projects encompass a range of nuclear fuels and materials research that will advance next-generation nuclear technologies. Key materials being studied include advanced metallic and ceramic fuels, additively manufactured structural materials, innovative sensors, and cladding materials that could be promising candidate materials for use in advanced nuclear reactors.</p><p>These projects have the potential to advance accident-tolerant fuels and microreactor technologies, improve structural material resilience for extended reactor lifetimes, develop innovative sensing and monitoring systems for safer, more efficient nuclear operations. All experiments will look at various properties of materials that have undergone irradiation at various reactors, doses, temperatures, times and manufacturing methods. Researchers will characterize those samples using mechanical testing, microstructural analysis, and various microscopy techniques.</p><p>The Super RTE is a user access award process that offers an avenue for researchers to perform a broader scope of irradiation effects studies (i.e., more samples and more access time) than the traditional RTE award process. Super RTE projects must be completed within 12 months of the award.</p><p><b>FY 2025 Super RTE award recipients&nbsp; </b>&nbsp; &nbsp;</p><table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <thead> <tr> <td width="174" valign="top"> <p><strong> Principal Investigator </strong><strong> </strong></p> </td> <td width="159" valign="top"> <p><strong> Institution </strong><strong> </strong></p> </td> <td width="290" valign="top"> <p><strong> Project Title </strong><strong> </strong></p> </td> </tr> </thead> <tbody><tr> <td width="174" valign="top"> <p> Denise Adorno Lopes </p> </td> <td width="159" valign="top"> <p> Oak Ridge National Laboratory </p> </td> <td width="290" valign="top"> <p> Mechanistic Pathways of Fuel–Cladding Chemical Interactions via Ion Irradiation of Diffusion Couples </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="174" valign="top"> <p> Shradha Agarwal </p> </td> <td width="159" valign="top"> <p> Missouri University of Science and Technology </p> </td> <td width="290" valign="top"> <p> Machine Learning-Based Analysis of Post-Irradiation Examination Data for Fuel-Cladding Chemical Interaction Characterization in Metallic Fuels </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="174" valign="top"> <p> Shaileyee Bhattacharya </p> </td> <td width="159" valign="top"> <p> Oak Ridge National Laboratory </p> </td> <td width="290" valign="top"> <p> Evaluating the role of FeCrAl Alloy as a Hydrogen Permeation Barrier in Irradiated Yttrium Hydrides through In-Situ Synchrotron X-Ray Diffraction Studies </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="174" valign="top"> <p> Brandon Bohanon </p> </td> <td width="159" valign="top"> <p> University of Florida </p> </td> <td width="290" valign="top"> <p> Effect of in situ Straining on Irradiation Induced Hardening in RPV Steel </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="174" valign="top"> <p> Nora Dianne Bull Ezell </p> </td> <td width="159" valign="top"> <p> Oak Ridge National Laboratory </p> </td> <td width="290" valign="top"> <p> Neutron Irradiation of a Johnson Noise Thermometry-Compensated Temperature Sensors </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="174" valign="top"> <p> Luca Capriotti </p> </td> <td width="159" valign="top"> <p> Belgian Center for Nuclear Research (SCK/CEN) / Co-PI at Idaho National Laboratory </p> </td> <td width="290" valign="top"> <p> Characterization of Fuel–Cladding Chemical Interaction in Transmutation Non-Fertile Metallic Fuels </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="174" valign="top"> <p> Tianyi Chen </p> </td> <td width="159" valign="top"> <p> Oregon State University </p> </td> <td width="290" valign="top"> <p> Fission gas release in UO2 and doped UO2 and the effects of solid fission products </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="174" valign="top"> <p> Caleb Clement </p> </td> <td width="159" valign="top"> <p> Westinghouse Electric Company </p> </td> <td width="290" valign="top"> <p> Investigating Interfacial Phenomena in Commercially and Test Reactor Irradiated Cr-Coated Zr Cladding </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="174" valign="top"> <p> Matthew deJong </p> </td> <td width="159" valign="top"> <p> Oak Ridge National Laboratory </p> </td> <td width="290" valign="top"> <p> Effect of Yttrium Hydride Alloy Type on Stability under Ion Irradiation </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="174" valign="top"> <p> Will Flanagan </p> </td> <td width="159" valign="top"> <p> University of Texas-Austin </p> </td> <td width="290" valign="top"> <p> Measurement of the prompt gammas emitted during Xe-135 neutron capture for nuclear reactor heating calculations </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="174" valign="top"> <p> Lin-wen Hu </p> </td> <td width="159" valign="top"> <p> Massachusetts Institute of Technology </p> </td> <td width="290" valign="top"> <p> Investigation of Gas Additives for Tritium Permeation Control in Neutron-irradiated Flibe </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="174" valign="top"> <p> Ella Kartika Pek </p> </td> <td width="159" valign="top"> <p> Idaho National Laboratory </p> </td> <td width="290" valign="top"> <p> Evaluation of Microstructural Integrity of ATR-Irradiated Yttrium Hydride (YHₓ) </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="174" valign="top"> <p> Amey Khanolkar </p> </td> <td width="159" valign="top"> <p> Idaho National Laboratory </p> </td> <td width="290" valign="top"> <p> Comprehensive examination of the microstructure and physical properties of gamma-irradiated elastomers for advanced reactor seismic isolation devices </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="174" valign="top"> <p> Boopathy Kombaiah </p> </td> <td width="159" valign="top"> <p> Idaho National Laboratory </p> </td> <td width="290" valign="top"> <p> In-situ Irradiation and Creep Studies on Oxide Dispersion Strengthened (ODS) Alloys Synthesized using a Novel Way </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="174" valign="top"> <p> Keith Means </p> </td> <td width="159" valign="top"> <p> Westinghouse Electric Company </p> </td> <td width="290" valign="top"> <p> Ceramic Matrix Composite Post Irradiation Examination </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="174" valign="top"> <p> Patrick Purtscher </p> </td> <td width="159" valign="top"> <p> Nuclear Regulatory Commission </p> </td> <td width="290" valign="top"> <p> Environmental Cracking of High-Strength Materials </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="174" valign="top"> <p> Aditya Shivprasad </p> </td> <td width="159" valign="top"> <p> Electric Power Research Institute </p> </td> <td width="290" valign="top"> <p> X-ray diffraction and eddy current study of irradiation growth in zirconium alloys </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="174" valign="top"> <p> Ivan Viti </p> </td> <td width="159" valign="top"> <p> QuantCAD </p> </td> <td width="290" valign="top"> <p> Irradiation to enhance NZFMR signal by increasing defects </p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table><p><br></p><p>NSUF competitively selected these projects from a pool of high-quality Super RTE proposal submissions. NSUF researchers 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. Access to high-performance computing and data archiving resources can also be included with every project.</p><p><a href="https://nsuf.inl.gov/Home/Projects" target="_blank">Click here</a> to find current and past awards. Learn more about NSUF awards and resources at <a href="https://nsuf.inl.gov/Home/Article/nsuf.inl.gov" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: sans-serif; font-weight: 400;"> nsuf.inl.gov</a></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p> <br></p>