Fundamental Understanding of Transport Under Reactor Extremes (FUTURE)

Advancing Knowledge of Material Behavior Under Nuclear Reactor Extremes

FUTURE, an Energy Frontier Research Center, investigates how radiation, corrosion, and extreme stresses impact material properties in nuclear reactors.

The Fundamental Understanding of Transport Under Reactor Extremes (FUTURE) is an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Energy Science. FUTURE focuses on understanding how materials respond to the intense conditions within nuclear reactors, such as radiation damage, corrosive environments, high stress, and extreme temperatures. During irradiation, energetic particles create high concentrations of defects, altering the atomic transport processes that drive corrosion and material degradation. These mechanisms of atomic movement vary with local stresses and temperature, leading to changes in material properties over time. FUTURE’s goal is to unravel the complex interactions among these factors to better predict and improve material performance in reactor environments.

FUTURE's renewal

In 2022, the Office of Basic Energy Science announced that the FUTURE Energy Frontier Research Center would be renewed for another four years. FUTURE 2 builds upon the research conducted in FUTURE 1.0, with a focus on how a material’s heterogeneities regulate the fundamental mechanisms that dictate a material’s response during coupled irradiation and corrosion.

FUTURE 2 brings together researchers from FUTURE 1 from Los Alamos National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, Bowling Green State University, North Carolina State University, and the University of Virginia. The renewal also supports the addition of a new partner at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

FUTURE Staff

The staff of FUTURE features scientists, postdocs, students, and administrators from leading research institutions, including national laboratories and universities.