Brad Young
PhD Student - University of Oxford
Project Title: Novel Zr alloys for Fusion
Brad Young graduated with an MEng Materials Science from Oxford in 2020 and has continued in the department for his DPhil. As part of Key Challenge 3, Brad will call upon existing understanding of zirconium alloys to research their applicability as a structural material in the breeder blanket section of a fusion power plant.
Brad’s project will focus on creating and processing new alloys before testing their behaviour in fusion-relevant conditions – such as the corrosive environment of liquid lithium and their high temperature creep properties. As well as testing, microstructural characterisation via OM, XRD, SEM, EDX, EBSD, and APT will be used to understand the behaviour of the alloys and inform future developments.
“Novel zirconium alloys could overcome a major barrier to nuclear fusion becoming the clean electricity source of the future.”