Materials

We provide a range of key capabilities and expertise which focus on the development of materials for the nuclear industry.

Technical discipline  

To be economically viable, a fusion energy machine’s components must be able to survive for long periods in challenging environments. A fusion power plant will impose a unique combination of high temperature, bombardment by fast neutrons from fusion reactions, and severe electrical, magnetic and mechanical stresses. Developing optimum materials is therefore a high priority for fusion research and a core capability at UKAEA. 

Research

The Materials programme encompasses activity across UKAEA.

Research activity highlights include:

  • active testing towards damage characterisation and understanding via modelling for development (Materials Research Facility)
  • tritium lock up during dust formation and post mortem material after campaigns in JET
  • magnet and plasma materials learnings from MAST Upgrade
  • control of tritium retention, release, permeation and outgassing or bulk properties in H3AT
  • small scale test techniques and material handbooks for engineering data and design
  • RADHARD and SMART materials for robots and diagnostics
  • UK Materials Road Map to align and assist supply chain

Team expertise

The combined expertise across MRF, FMI, and MSE covers the full spectrum of nuclear materials research, including:

  • safe handling and characterisation of irradiated and hazardous materials (MRF)
  • predictive modelling and nuclear inventory analysis for fusion environments (FMI)
  • development of new testing methods and irradiation campaigns to fill critical data gaps (MSE)

Together, our teams provide world-leading capabilities in materials preparation, analysis, modelling, irradiation, corrosion, and activation, directly supporting the design and qualification of materials for future fusion power plants such as STEP and EU-DEMO.

Materials Research Facility (MRF)

Expertise

  • Handling irradiated materials on a non-licensed site, with specialist facilities including hot cells, gloveboxes, and robotic remote-handling.
  • Sample preparation and machining (cutting, grinding, polishing, electro discharge machining, ion-beam polishing).
  • Characterisation and testing of irradiated and hazardous samples:
    • Microstructural analysis (SEM, FIB-SEM, AFM).Mechanical testing (nanoindenter, 10kN UTM).Thermo-physical characterisation.
    • Tritium and beryllium handling.
  • Radiological experimentation with access to an active source inventory (~3 TBq).
  • Materials analysis techniques: electrolytic polishing, sputter coating, X-ray fluorescence, thermal desorption spectroscopy.

Strengths

Enabling safe, cost-effective analysis of radioactive materials, bridging the gap between universities and nuclear-licensed sites.

Fusion Materials Interfaces (FMI) Programme

Expertise

  • Materials–neutron interactions: simulation and prediction of transmutation, displacement damage, activation, and structural changes.
  • Materials modelling:
    • Density Functional Theory (DFT), molecular dynamics, Monte Carlo.
    • Machine learning potentials for complex materials.
    • Tritium transport, oxidation, corrosion, irradiation-assisted damage modelling.
  • Nuclear inventory and activation analysis:
    • World-leading FISPACT-II platform (approved for ITER, EU-DEMO).
    • Waste assessment, shutdown dose-rate modelling, gas production, decay heat prediction.
  • Nuclear data validation and experiments:
    • Cross-section measurements, gamma spectroscopy, time-of-flight methods.
    • Development of automated validation algorithms.
  • Fusion material experiments:
    • Corrosion/oxidation under fusion-relevant environments.
    • Fuel retention and impurity analysis in plasma-facing materials (laser desorption).
    • Atom-probe tomography, Raman, TEM, EDS, thermal desorption spectroscopy.

Strengths

Deep integration of modelling, experiments, and nuclear data validation, enabling predictive understanding of material behaviour in fusion environments.                    

Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) Programme

Expertise

  • Irradiation campaigns:
    • Collection and testing of pre-irradiated materials worldwide (UK archive).
    • Execution of new irradiation programmes (including synergistic in-situ studies combining load, temperature, and corrosion).
  • Technique development:
    • Design-by-fundamentals (beyond conventional design-by-analysis) for future fusion plants.Development of advanced material models (plasticity, fracture, hydrogen transport).
    • Novel experimental methods:
      • Advanced X-ray diffraction for defect quantification.
      • High-resolution DIC (HRDIC) for mechanical testing.
      • Micromechanical tests (fibre push-out, micro-pillar, cantilever).
      • In-situ testing under irradiation (mechanical + thermal).
      • Conductive AFM and impedance spectroscopy for radiation damage.
  • Industry/academic partnerships: Co-developing and validating experimental methods with external facilities.

Strengths

Pioneering next-generation experimental techniques and design methodologies to underpin fusion energy machine materials qualification and engineering design.

Equipment and facilities

The UKAEA’s Materials Research Facility has hot cells for processing neutron-irradiated samples and equipment for characterising them. This facility bridges the gap between the university or industrial laboratory and large facilities at nuclear licensed sites, with affordable, convenient access.

Most of the on-site analysis equipment is in shielded research rooms and operated remotely from the MRF control room, allowing experiments on samples with radioactivity up to gigabecquerel levels.

Find equipment available to use at the Materials Research Facility