CAREER: Radiation Interaction with Nanostructured Ceramics - Integrating Materials Research Into Nuclear Education

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NON-TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: Radiation-tolerant materials can extend the lifetime of components, and may be very valuable in the design and operation of safer, more reliable nuclear systems - where controlling radiation is a top priority. The atomic-level understanding of radiation interaction is critical for developing advanced materials that can withstand intensive radiation for both current and future nuclear technologies. This CAREER project targets the fundamental understanding of the behavior of nanostructured ceramics under extreme radiation environments. This fundamental knowledge may enable new science for nanoscale materials design that extends the performance of materials with excellent radiation tolerance. The research effort is complemented by an integrated education component which will impact the scientific community by bridging advanced materials and nanotechnology with nuclear education and training of young scientists in the critical area of controlling radiation. Special efforts will be made to involve underrepresented groups of high-school students and teachers through collaborations with local communities (Half Hollow Hills school district, NY) and academic outreach programs (including Summer@Rensselaer). This approach will help promote the general public's understanding of nuclear radiation (both the challenges and materials solutions).TECHNICAL DETAILS: This CAREER project aims to elucidate atomistic mechanisms of radiation interaction and defect behaviors in order to understand the damage mechanisms and structural evolution of nanostructured ceramics and how different length scales affect materials radiation performance. This research builds on a synergetic effort of synthesizing nanostructured ceramics, energetic beam irradiation and the combination of state-of-the-art approaches (including advanced transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and ion beam techniques) in characterizing materials structural evolution and defect behaviors. High-temperature oxide melt solution calorimetry is being performed on nanostructured ceramics in order to correlate the thermodynamic understanding with radiation stability. The atomistic mechanisms of radiation interaction with nanostructured ceramics alongside multi-scale computational simulations based on DFT, classical molecular dynamic (MD) and kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) are being used to determine how nanostructure evolves upon radiation. Based on an improved fundamental understanding, new science is evolving to develop advanced materials with enhanced radiation tolerance for effective radiation control through nanoscale materials design.