UK Atomic Energy Authority
Location
Culham, Oxfordshire | United Kingdom
Job 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."
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: Development of oxide dispersion strengthened ferritic steels for fusion energy
Are you looking for an exciting opportunity to make a difference? Join our team and contribute to the future of fusion energy.
The operating temperatures and component lifetime for the future tritium breeder blankets of fusion reactors will be limited by the performance of the current generation of structural steels. Advanced powder metallurgy based ODS steels can enable higher operating temperatures that will improve reactors efficiency. ODS steels have high number density of thermally stable yttria based oxide particles which inhibit dislocation motion for improved high temperature strength and creep and can significantly improve irradiation damage resistance by trapping transmutant helium and acting as free surfaces for recombination of neutron irradiation induced defects. UKAEA Materials Division recently produced twelve different grades of ferritic ODS steels with different yttria content hand thermomechanical treatment parameters. As part of the further development and down-selection and to understand how these alloys will withstand a nuclear reactor environment it is important to evaluate their behaviour under high temperature exposure with a focus on the microstructure and mechanical properties stability.
Key objectives of this summer placement will be: i) perform high temperature annealing of the selected ODS samples; ii) hardness testing of the samples; iii) grain size analysis of the annealed samples; iv) establishing correlation between the high temperature annealing parameters, microstructural stability and mechanical properties of the ODS steels.
Essential Requirements:
A full list of our benefits can be found here
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.
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