Company Description

By 2050, the planet could be using twice as much electricity compared to today. Are you interested in contributing and helping to shape the future of the world’s energy? If so, read on.

Fusion, the process that powers the Sun and Stars, is one of the most promising options for generating the cleaner, carbon-free energy that our world badly needs.

UKAEA leads the way in realizing fusion energy, partnering with industry and research for groundbreaking advancements. Our goal is to bring fusion electricity to the grid, supported by tomorrow's power stations. In pursuit of our mission, UKAEA embraces core values: Innovative, Committed, Trusted, and Collaborative."

Job Description

This role requires employees to complete an online Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS), including The Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks for criminal convictions.

The Role: High Throughput Analysis of Irradiation Hardening in Reduced Activation Ferritic-Martensitic Steels for Future Fusion Applications. 

Are you looking for an exciting opportunity to make a difference? Join our team and contribute to the future of fusion energy.

Reduced activation ferritic-martensitic (RAFM) steels are a recent class of radiation-resistant steels designed to be used as the structural components of power-producing fusion reactors. Their goal is to provide high-temperature strength and creep resistance while consisting only of alloying elements that do not produce high-level radioactive waste after use. The current generation of RAFM steels are limited to operating temperatures below 550°C, after which the alloys are susceptible to grain boundary unpinning, phase instability and a loss in creep strength. This is attributed to the coarsening of the M23C6 precipitates at high temperature. Advanced RAFM steels, or ARAFM steels, are therefore being developed to operate above 550°C and increase the thermodynamic efficiency of the power plant. The key consortium within the UK in this area is operating within the NEURONE programme, which seeks to combine an optimised alloy chemistry with refinements in the thermomechanical treatment (TMT) of the alloy in order to produce a microstructure strengthened by a fine dispersion of metastable, radiation-resistant MX-type precipitates. 

There exists already a very large library of materials within NEURONE, due to the rapid combinatorial effects of alloy chemistry, TMT, irradiating species, irradiation temperature, and irradiation dose. It is therefore critical to develop robust methodologies to rapidly screen alloys for changes in key mechanical properties – hardness, yield strength, hardenability, creep resistance – as a function of these effects. 

This project will support our efforts in developing a high-throughput, nanoindentation-based approach to assess the changes in mechanical properties after (ion) irradiation. Indentation tests using a wide range of indenter geometries and loading profiles will be refined and applied to our library of (non-active) irradiated samples in order to target the specific properties of interest. Post-test electron-microscopy characterisation to understand how deformation is accommodated within the microstructure will also be performed in support of knowledge-based materials design strategies.

This role is part of the Royce Summer Placement Scheme.

Qualifications

Essential Requirements:

• To be considered you will need to be working towards a relevant degree and will be required to have the right to work in the UK. 

Additional Information

A full list of our benefits can be found here https://careers.ukaea.uk/life-at-ukaea/employee-benefits/

We welcome applications from under-represented groups, particularly individuals from black and other ethnic minority backgrounds, people with disabilities, and women. Our Executive team, supported by our 'Equality, Diversity and Inclusion' (EDI) Partner and Inclusion Ambassadors, actively promotes EDI and takes steps to increase diversity within our organization. We reinforce best practices in recruitment and selection and evaluate approaches to remove barriers to success.

Please note that vacancies are generally advertised for 4 weeks but may close earlier if we receive a large number of applications.