Date/Time
Date(s) - 09/21/2023
1:55 pm - 2:55 pm
Location
Rhines Hall 125
Categories
Abstract
Arguably, one of the most important factors in the fast deployment of advanced nuclear reactors, with major improvements in safety, is the development and qualification of radiation and corrosion-tolerant materials that serve as the structural and cladding components in reactor cores. However, the discovery, improvement, and assessment of materials resistant to radiation and corrosion in the advanced reactors’ extreme environments are quite demanding, time-consuming, and costly, which represents a significant barrier to materials innovation and qualification for nuclear energy.
This seminar highlights research in irradiation and corrosion of structural Compositionally Complex Alloys (CCAs) using a top-down approach: (i) a novel, integrated, high-throughput (HTP) research framework to screen large compositional space, and (ii) targeted well-controlled experiments with atomistic scale modeling and characterizations to unveil the degradation mechanisms. This top-down approach allows for the understanding of degradation mechanisms and the development of predictive models for irradiation at high doses and molten salt corrosion responses of CCAs with the objective of accelerating materials discovery for high-temperature nuclear structural applications
Bio
Adrien Couet, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Dr. Adrien Couet is a Grainger Associate Professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he manages the MAterials Degradation under COrrosion and Radiation (MADCOR) laboratory. Previously, he obtained his Ph.D. from the Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering Department at Penn State University in 2014, and then he worked as a nuclear materials research engineer at Electricité de France, in France, focusing on high-temperature aqueous corrosion and modeling corrosion of nuclear materials.
Over the last six years, Dr. Couet has worked extensively in the areas of aqueous and molten corrosion and electrochemistry and has played a key role in setting up state-of-the-art experimental facilities for molten salt research. Dr. Couet leads multiple DOE-funded molten salt research programs in collaboration with TerraPower, and also an ARPA-E program in collaboration with ANL and NIST on accelerated development of materials for molten salt reactor applications. He is also a co-PI of the Molten Salt in Extreme Environments (MSEE) Energy Frontiers Research Center (EFRC).