Research
|
Tiana Dodson, a mechanical engineer at DOE 's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), is applying her skilled background in metrology to process data on the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator in Germany. "It's going to be fantastically challenging. I'll be using two new software packages and working on a large piece of the project," says Dodson, who begins a six-month assignment in April at the Greifswald Institute of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP). The stellarator is a large magnetic fusion energy experiment being built at IPP. Submitted by DOE's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory |
Check out the joint Fermilab/SLAC publication symmetry.
|
Universities study materials in
|
The Advanced Test Reactor's serpentine fuel arrangement lets researchers irradiate materials under varied experimental conditions. |
Nuclear energy is receiving increasing attention as the nation strives to meet its energy needs while curbing carbon dioxide emissions. At least 30 nuclear plants are currently under construction around the world, with dozens more planned or ordered. But tomorrow's advanced nuclear reactors will require advanced materials.
DOE's Idaho National Laboratory is leading collaborations with universities and other national labs to develop and test these materials. The Advanced Test Reactor National Scientific User Facility, which opened INL's unique nuclear testing capabilities to the academic community in 2007, recently selected new university partner experiments and facilities.
The experiments will use the ATR and partner facilities to study how aluminum-hafnium alloys, a new silicon carbide-based material, reactor pressure vessel steels and other advanced materials hold up under prolonged exposure to high temperatures and radiation.
Nuclear power reactors generate electricity by using heat from the fission of uranium fuel to drive a steam turbine. The fission process also releases neutron radiation, which can gradually degrade materials used in the protective fuel cladding and the reactor’s core vessel where the fission occurs.
The ATR allows scientists to find out which materials can withstand such an extreme environment. Researchers can place samples into the ATR and bombard the material with neutrons to simulate the radiation in a nuclear power reactor. Each year, the User Facility solicits experiment proposals and evaluates university research submissions to choose experiments for testing.
Teams representing Utah State University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California-Santa Barbara and the University of Wisconsin were chosen from the most recent round of proposals. These teams include collaborators from two other universities and DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory. These projects join five experiments the user facility selected in 2008.
Submitted by DOE's Idaho National Laboratory
| DOE Pulse Home | Search | Comments |