For the last year, researchers at the Sandia National Laboratories have used an ion beam in tandem with an electron microscope to recreate the long-term effects of conditions inside a reactor – creating data that would take years to produce using conventional tests.
The beamline from the tandem accelerator at Sandia’s Ion Beam Laboratory in Albuquerque, N.M., has been used to conduct nano-scale irradiation experiments that simulate the stresses placed on fuel cladding over long periods of time. Researchers can watch and record the effects of the radiation produced by the accelerator in real time from the microscope.
“The idea is to come up with new ways to make different alloy compositions and different materials for next-generation reactors and to understand the materials used in the current-generation reactors,” materials scientist Khalid Hattar said in the release. “Then we can find ways of doing a combination of (transmission electron microscope) characterization, as well as small-scale mechanical property testing in this rapid testing scenario to screen these materials and see which ones are the most suitable.”
As they seek to predict the lifetime of reactor materials and study their degradation, researchers can also create experiments with temperatures up to 1,200 C. One experiment has already studied the effects of radiation on an alloy under consideration for use in new power reactor designs, according to the release.
Hattar, with colleagues Tom Buchheit, Shreyas Rajasekhara and B.G. Clark, hope their research techniques will lead to more efficient reactors, as well as more efficient testing of their materials.