LAUSR

Nuclear Materials research focusing on the degradation of materials utilized in nuclear environments has been struggling with the fact that the materials are radioactive after reactor exposure and therefore are difficult to handle. Large scale mechanical testing requires shielding and elaborate laboratory equipment to ensure the workers’ safety. In addition, reactor irradiations take extensive amounts of time to reach appreciable doses on materials, making materials investigations a time and cost intensive effort. Ion beam irradiations can accelerate the accumulation of dose in materials, compared to reactors achieving the same dose in a matter of days that takes years in a reactor irradiation. However, ion beam irradiations do have the challenge of small penetration depths into the materials.