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3.3M euro funding for Prediction of Irradiation Damage Effects in Reactor Components.

3.3M euro funding for Prediction of Irradiation Damage Effects in Reactor Components. Graeme Ackland is part of a 3.3 million euro EU project to study steels under conditions of extreme radiation bombardment. The intention is to understand the limiting features of nuclear reactor component lifetimes, to evaluate safe running lifetimes and to design better materls for withstanding radiation damage. Presently, radiation damage lifetimes for components are determined empirically from results of the early test reactors, which are typically only a few years ahead of production facilities. Other studies are based on extrapolating from shorter timescales to more extreme conditions. Presently, the underlying science is poorly understood although it is known that small quantities of impurity (e.g. phosphorus or copper) can have disproportionate effects on lifetimes. CSEC's role is this work is to determine the atomistic damage and healing processes which occur by computer simulation. A postdoctoral fellowship in making the accurate models for interatomic interactions which underpin this work will be available from January 2003