Research

FUTURE 2.0's Thrusts

• Thrust 1: Compositional Heterogeneity
• Thrust 2: Phase Heterogeneity
• Thrust 3: Structural Heterogeneity

Research Plan

We combine experiment and modeling to understand the fundamental processes responsible for materials evolution under concurrent irradiation and corrosion. Our focus is on materials heterogeneities - those aspects of materials that deviate from non-ideality and dictate the properties of the material.

Each of the thrusts in FUTURE is motivated by a specific scientific hypothesis that gets at the heart of the problem we are addressing:

• The energy landscape for transport in compositionally-heterogeneous alloys and oxides alters the rate and prevailing mechanisms of corrosion and is, in turn, modified by irradiation.
• The thermokinetics of defect evolution and thus ongoing corrosion, thermally and under irradiation, differ in a multiphase vs. single phase material.
• The dynamics of transport that drive corrosion through extended defects and their networks are altered under irradiation.

Tying the Thrusts together are Cross-Cutting science Topics related to different corrosion environments: oxide-forming corrosion and molten salt corrosion.

Together, these Thrusts interrogate the fundamental mechanisms responsible for materials evolution that drive the response under coupled reactor extremes.