ETHAN HUrtford
PhD Student - University of Birmingham
Project Title: Neutron driven radiolytic corrosion of zirconium-based alloys under PWR conditions
Ethan completed an MEng in Nuclear Engineering at the University of Birmingham in 2022. Following this, he worked as a member of technical staff in the school of metallurgy and materials, before starting his PhD in 2024. Ethan’s PhD, co-funded by Rolls-Royce, aims to use simultaneous irradiation and corrosion to develop a better understanding of the mechanisms that lead to breakaway corrosion in zircaloy-4.
Proton irradiated samples from the Dalton Cumbrian Facility and the MC40 Cyclatron Facility at the university of Birmingham will be corroded and investigated using TEM. Comparisons will be made with samples from the High Flux Accelerator-Driven Neutron Facility which will be similarly corroded. Simultaneous irradiation and corrosion of these samples will also provide an insight to the effects of radiolysis on each of these samples and how this compares to pre-irradiation corrosion of zircaloy-4.
“Nuclear material science has been a passion of mine for a number of years and I’m very excited for this opportunity to work with some of the most advanced facilities and a group with such a wealth of knowledge as MIDAS.”