UW-Madison researchers win DOE Nuclear Science User Facilities awards

The U.S. Department of Energy Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF) awarded seven out of 35 grants to University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers for their rapid turnaround experiment (RTE) projects in 2017.

All of the research proposals submitted by UW-Madison engineers were awarded funding. The RTE projects will continue to advance the understanding of irradiation effects in nuclear fuels and materials in support of the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy’s mission.

NSUF competitively selected the 35 RTE projects from high-quality proposals submitted during the solicitation period. RTE project teams include researchers from two nuclear energy industries, 11 universities, and four national laboratories who will work with the NSUF on their proposed experiments.

The UW-Madison researchers who received RTE awards include:

nuclear engineering and engineering physics Distinguished Research Professor Kumar Sridharan, for his proposal, “Heavy ion irradiation and ex situ transmission electron microscopy study of the effectiveness of twin boundaries in alleviating radiation damage in 316 austenitic stainless steels.

PhD student Ben Maier, who is advised by Sridharan, for his proposal, “Atomic probe tomography studies of irradiated cold spray coatings for accident tolerant cladding.”

Engineering Physics PhD student Gabriel Meric de Bellefon, for his proposal, “The effectiveness of coherent and incoherent twin boundaries in alleviating radiation damage in heavy-ion-irradiated 316L austenitic stainless steels.”

Engineering Physics Assistant Professor Adrien Couet, for his proposal, “Characterization of oxide layer on the surface of high temperature water corroded Zircaloy-4 in the presence of neutron+gamma and gamma only.”

Couet also received an award for his proposal, “APT and TEM study of redistribution of alloying elements in ZrNb alloys following proton irradiation: effects on in-reactor corrosion kinetics.”

Grainger Institute for Engineering Professor and Engineering Physics Professor Todd Allen, for his proposal, “IVEM investigation of defect evolution in FCC and BCC high-entropy alloys during heavy ion irradiation.”

Allen also received an award for his proposal, “Examining microstructural differences in irradiated HT9, correlated with differences in processing prior to irradiation.”

In addition, Haiming Wen, a faculty member at Idaho State University, is using instruments in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Ion Beam Laboratory, housed in the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics, to conduct his research on enhanced irradiation tolerance of high-entropy alloys.

NSUF, first established at Idaho National Laboratory, is the nation’s only user facility overseen by the Office of Nuclear Energy. NSUF provides research teams with access to reactor, post-irradiation examination, high-performance computing, and beamline capabilities at a diverse mix of affiliated partner facilities in university, national laboratory and industry institutions across the country at no cost to the user.