Governor’s Chair for Nuclear Materials and Professor Steve Zinkle is the lead principal investigator of a Fusion Innovation Research Engine (FIRE) Collaboratives proposal that was selected to receive $20 million in funding over four years.
The U.S. Department of Energy announced the awards on Thursday, and Zinkle’s project is one of six projects chosen for the $107 million in funding. Zinkle’s project received the highest funding level possible through the grant process.
The project, Integrated Materials Program to Accelerate Chamber Technologies (IMPACT), will be attempting to establish a template to rapidly design, fabricate at industrial scale, and perform comprehensive mechanical property testing for a new generation of high-performance structural materials that are available to use in near-term fusion energy systems.
“We are excited to embark on this ambitious program designed to yield the first high-performance ASME code-qualified structural alloy for high temperature fusion energy systems, which will also be applicable for some Generation IV fission reactor applications,” Zinkle said. “Our assembled multidisciplinary team includes experts with a demonstrated track record of using science-based methods to rapidly design, fabricate and deploy advanced structural materials.”
The current lack of any American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) high temperature nuclear code-qualified fusion structural materials is one of the most time-critical obstacles to commercialization of fusion energy.
The project aims to provide the pathway and database for the first-ever ASME Boiler & Pressure Vessel (BPV) code qualification for a fusion material and demonstrate an expedited pathway from alloy design to code qualification and engineering application of high-performance engineering alloys.
The IMPACT team led by Zinkle includes three other Tickle College of Engineering faculty members: Eric Lass, an assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering; Bradley Jared, an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering; and NE Associate Professor Khalid Hattar.
The other institutions involved in the project are Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Stony Brook University, University of Michigan, Northwestern University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, UC Santa Barbara, Idaho National Laboratory, University of Miami, and UCLA.
The DOE launched the FIRE Collaboratives initiative last year to establish collaborative networks that bridge the gap between fusion research and industry.
FIRE Collaboratives consist of teams from government facilities, academia, and industry to address technical challenges on the road to commercial fusion development. Through the FIRE Collaboratives, the DOE hopes to accelerate the transition of scientific discoveries into commercial fusion applications.
Contact
Rhiannon Potkey (865-974-0683, rpotkey@utk.edu)