| Abstract Scope |
Unlike progress in semiconductors, solar cells, or drug discovery, innovation in nuclear materials does not yet move at the speed of thought. We hypothesize that high-throughput workflow engineering centered around inference models between readily measurable properties and those of ultimate interest for nuclear structural materials (strength, ductility, toughness, thermal conductivity) can speed the pace of discovery, down-selection, development by a factor of 100. We employ a combination of thick-film physical vapor deposition or liquid-based combinatorial synthesis, followed by consolidation and microstructural optimization, and finally rapid measurements via in situ ion irradiation transient grating spectroscopy (I3TGS) and indentation plastometry during/between irradiations to correlate directly to fitness functions for each use case. We illustrate our ideas by tackling three systems: CuCr(Nb,Zr,Ti) alloys as RF antennas for plasma heating, plasma-facing first-wall high entropy alloys, and vanadium-based fusion structural materials, and will (hopefully) present our first results in this symposium. |