IDAHO FALLS -- The U.S. Department of Energy - Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF) has selected 31 new Rapid Turnaround Experiment (RTE) projects, totaling up to approximately $1.4 million. These projects will continue to advance the understanding of irradiation effects in nuclear fuels and materials in support of the mission of the DOE-NE.
The NSUF, first established at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), is the nation’s only user facility sponsored by the Office of Nuclear Energy and solely dedicated to the advancement of nuclear energy. NSUF provides research teams with access to irradiation, post-irradiation examination, high-performance computing, and beamline capabilities at a diverse mix of affiliated partner facilities at university, national laboratory, and industry institutions across the country at no cost to the user.
The NSUF competitively selected the 31 RTE projects from a large number of high-quality proposals submitted during the solicitation period. Each proposal was evaluated based on a variety of factors including feasibility, mission relevance, and scientific-technical merit.
RTE project awards went to 18 Principal Investigators (PIs) from universities, 10 PIs from national laboratories, 2 PIs from foreign universities, and 1 PI from a foreign industry. The newly awarded RTE projects are:
PI Name | Institution | Proposal Title | Facility |
Adrien Couet | University of Wisconsin | ChemiSTEM study of Nb redistribution in M5 irradiated at high burnup | Oak Ridge National Laboratory - Low Activation Materials Development and Analysis (LAMDA) |
Bei Ye | Argonne National Laboratory | In-Situ Observation of Radiation-Induced Phase Transformation in U-Mo | Argonne National Laboratory – Intermediate Voltage Electron Microscope Tandem Facility (IVEM) |
Casey McKinney | University of Florida | 3D Microstructure Reconstruction of the Peripheral Region of MOX FBR Fuel | Idaho National Laboratory - Materials and Fuels Complex (MFC) |
Charlyne Smith | University of Florida | Impact of grain boundary mobility on fission gas bubble distribution of ion-irradiated monolithic U-Mo fuel | Idaho National Lab - Materials and Fuels Complex (MFC) and Argonne National Laboratory – Intermediate Voltage Electron Microscope Tandem Facility (IVEM) |
Daniel Jadernas | Studsvik Nuclear AB | Effects of dose and temperature on microstructural evolution of Zircaloy-4 alloys during proton irradiation | Center for Advanced Energy Studies - Microscopy and Characterization Suite (MaCS) |
David Frazer | Los Alamos National Laboratory | In-Situ SEM Irradiation Enhanced Creep Studies of 14 YWT | Sandia National Laboratory - Tech Area 5/Ion Beam Analysis Laboratory (TA-V/IBA) |
Fidelma Di Lemma | Idaho National Laboratory | In-situ separate effect studies of thermal and radiation effects on Xe diffusion in alpha-U and U-10Zr. | Argonne National Laboratory – Intermediate Voltage Electron Microscope Tandem Facility (IVEM) |
Guiqiu Zheng | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Thermal diffusivity and microstructure analysis of in-core molten salt irradiated graphite | Idaho National Laboratory - Materials and Fuels Complex (MFC) |
Huan Yan | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | A study of the tensile response of HT-9 alloys following ATR irradiation to doses between 0.01 and 10 dpa at 300, 450 and 550C | Los Alamos National Laboratory - Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) |
Jack Haley | University of Oxford | On Surprising Dose Rate Effects in Neutron Irradiated Fe-Cr Alloys: A TEM Study of Composition Effects at DPA Rates that Vary by Only a Factor of 4 | Center for Advanced Energy Studies - Microscopy and Characterization Suite (MaCS) |
Keyou Mao | Purdue University | Effect of laser weld repairs on deformation mechanisms of neutron irradiated austenitic steels | Idaho National Laboratory - Materials and Fuels Complex (MFC) |
Luca Capriotti | Idaho National Laboratory | In-situ small-scale mechanical testing of fast reactor advance metallic fuel alloy. | Idaho National Laboratory - Materials and Fuels Complex (MFC) |
Mahmoud Mostafavi | University of Bristol | Mechanical property and microstructural characterization of irradiated stainless steel via in situ SEM-EBSD mechanical testing. | Oak Ridge National Laboratory - Low Activation Materials Development and Analysis (LAMDA) |
Marat Khafizov | Ohio State University | Ion irradiation of ThO2 and UO2 single crystals | Texas A&M University - Ion Beam Laboratory (IBL) and Idaho National Laboratory - Materials and Fuels Complex (MFC) |
Maria Okuniewski | Purdue University | Nanoindentation of Phases in Irradiated and Control U-10Zr Fuels | Idaho National Laboratory - Materials and Fuels Complex (MFC) |
Nathan Almirall | University of California-Santa Barbara | Resolving the Puzzle of Flux Effects on High Fluence Precipitation and Embrittlement of RPV Steels | Center for Advanced Energy Studies - Microscopy and Characterization Suite (MaCS) |
Nishant Garg | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Changes in mechanical and chemical-structural properties of gamma irradiated calcium silicate hydrates to an absorbed dose of 200 MGy with respect to pristine samples | Oak Ridge National Laboratory - Low Activation Materials Development and Analysis (LAMDA) |
Philip Edmondson | Oak Ridge National Laboratory | TEM Characterization of Highly Irradiated Stainless Steel | Oak Ridge National Laboratory - Low Activation Materials Development and Analysis (LAMDA) |
Ramprashad Prabhakaran | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory | Mechanical characterization of three lower dose HT-9 heats (ORNL, LANL and EBR II) after side-by-side neutron irradiation at LWR and fast reactor relevant temperatures | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory - Radiochemistry Processing Laboratory (RPL) |
Rodney Ewing | Stanford University | Radiation tolerance of Ln3TaO7 weberite-type nuclear waste matrix materials | Argonne National Laboratory – Intermediate Voltage Electron Microscope Tandem Facility (IVEM) |
Shradha Agarwal | University of Tennessee | In-situ irradiation study of carbides/nitrides/carbo-nitrides in additively manufactured ferritic-martensitic steels. | Argonne National Laboratory – Intermediate Voltage Electron Microscope Tandem Facility (IVEM) |
Stephen Taller | University of Michigan | Critical Evaluation of Solute Segregation and Precipitation Across Damage Rates in Dual Ion Irradiated T91 Steel | Oak Ridge National Laboratory - Low Activation Materials Development and Analysis (LAMDA) |
Thomas Rosseel | Oak Ridge National Laboratory | EBSD characterization of neutron irradiated mineral concrete aggregates | Oak Ridge National Laboratory - Low Activation Materials Development and Analysis (LAMDA) |
Tiankai Yao | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | Thermal Driven Grain Growth and Fission Gas Bubble Coarsening in Nano-grain Sized U3Si2 | Idaho National Laboratory - Materials and Fuels Complex (MFC) |
Tianyi Chen | Oregon State University | Local Deformation Mechanism of Neutron-Irradiated NF709 Austenitic Stainless Steel | Center for Advanced Energy Studies - Microscopy and Characterization Suite (MaCS) |
Todd Allen | University of Wisconsin | Ion Irradiation for High Fidelity Simulation of High Dose Neutron Irradiation | University of Michigan - Michigan Ion Beam Laboratory (MIBL) |
Troy Unruh | Idaho National Laboratory | He++ Irradiation of Aerosol Jet Printed Silver Structures | University of Michigan - Michigan Ion Beam Laboratory (MIBL) |
Weiying Chen | Argonne National Laboratory | Defect Clustering in 316H Stainless Steel and High Entropy Alloy Under In-situ Irradiation at 600-700°C | Argonne National Laboratory – Intermediate Voltage Electron Microscope Tandem Facility (IVEM) |
Xiang Liu | Idaho National Laboratory | Atom probe tomography study of the fuel cladding chemical interaction (FCCI) layer in irradiated U-10Zr fuel with HT-9 cladding | Center for Advanced Energy Studies - Microscopy and Characterization Suite (MaCS) |
Yan-Ru Lin | University of Tennessee | Bubble formation of in-situ He-implanted 14YWT and CNA advanced nanostructured ferritic alloys | Argonne National Laboratory – Intermediate Voltage Electron Microscope Tandem Facility (IVEM) |
Yu Lu | University of Florida | Microstructure characterization on neutron irradiated and post-tensile duplex stainless steels | Center for Advanced Energy Studies - Microscopy and Characterization Suite (MaCS) |
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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