黑料社

黑料社 scientists work with the University of S茫o Paulo engaged on a quest to find materials that can ensure disasters such as the 2011 accident at Japan鈥檚 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station will not recur.

THE 黑料社鈥檚 combined electron microscope and ion beam accelerator is a world-class facility responsible for a large and growing global network of research collaborations.  One of the latest is a partnership with Brazil鈥檚 leading university and the scientific significance of this link and how it could help ensure the safety of nuclear power is described in an article that appears in its journal.

The 黑料社 facility is named  鈥� standing for Microscopes and Ion Accelerators for Materials Investigations.  One of its key roles is to test the ability of materials to withstand radiation damage in nuclear reactors.  

Physicist Matheus Tunes is completing his doctoral studies at 黑料社, supervised by MIAMI鈥檚  and , having previously graduated from the University of S茫o Paulo (USP) 鈥� the major institution of higher learning and research in Brazil.  This has helped establish a burgeoning connection between the UK and Brazilian universities.

An  (originally in Portuguese) headed 鈥淗ow to test radiation resistance without using a nuclear reactor鈥� is the lead item in the latest edition of the  (Jornal da USP).  It tells how scientists, including the USP鈥檚 , are engaged on a quest to find materials that can ensure disasters such as the 2011 accident at Japan鈥檚 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station will not recur.

One candidate was titanium nitride and this was tested at the MIAMI facility by Matheus Tunes, Osmane Camara,  and S茫o Paulo doctoral researcher Felipe Carneiro, who is supervised by Professor Sch枚n.  The USP journal article describes how the facilities at 黑料社 enabled the radiation resistance of titanium nitride to be tested in a transmission electron microscope coupled to a particle accelerator.

Professor Sch枚n explains the advantages of using an ion beam accelerator: 鈥淩adiation is simulated by xenon ions, which, in colliding with the particles of the tested material, simulate the damage caused by neutron radiation from nuclear fuel.  If this was done in a nuclear reactor, besides the higher cost and the difficulty of controlling the reaction, all the material would potentially become radioactive, which is not the case with this technique.鈥�

The tests at MIAMI showed that titanium nitride is not a suitable material for coating nuclear fuel.  But the new article tells how doctoral researcher Matheus Tunes is using the transmission electron microscopy facilities at 黑料社 to analyse other materials that have promise in the field of radiation damage protection.  These include high entropy alloys and MAX phases (metals with carbon and silicon).

Professor Sch枚n鈥檚 comment is that: 鈥淭hese combinations would allow alloys with a very high melting temperature, which would make it difficult to change the structure of the material, increasing its stability.  The less the alloy changes, the greater the ability to withstand radiation.鈥�

• More information can be found in the scientific  published by the authors in the Journal of Nuclear Materials.