Officially launched in Orsay in early September, the SCIAM Priority Research Programme (PEPR), dedicated to upstream science for nuclear fission, brings together 27 partners to address key scientific challenges in the field. With €18 million in funding over six years under the France 2030 investment plan, the programme aims to advance the knowledge needed for the development of future nuclear systems.
At IRAMIS, SCIAM draws on the expertise of three research departments, LSI, NIMBE and CIMAP, which are partners in several projects within the programme.
At LSI, monitoring materials during irradiation
The Laboratory of Irradiated Solids (LSI) is a partner in Project 5, dedicated to cross-cutting infrastructure and equipment. Its contribution notably involves the SIRIUS irradiation platform and the acquisition of a Raman spectrometer that will be specifically adapted for use on the facility.
The aim is to monitor in situ and potentially during irradiation itself, the structural evolution of materials exposed to an electron beam.
This setup, which will be unique for an electron accelerator, could be used across a range of research fields, from materials for nuclear applications to space applications, as well as to investigate the modification of material properties under irradiation.
At NIMBE, investigating corrosion and radiolysis under irradiation
As part of Project 4, dedicated to fundamental data on materials under irradiation, complex corrosion phenomena in materials exposed to pulsed irradiation will be investigated in collaboration with IP2I.
As part of Project 5, dedicated to cross-cutting infrastructure and equipment, the ALIENOR irradiation platform will be equipped with automated online detection systems for gases produced by radiolysis, while the nuclear microprobe analysis platform will be equipped with gamma- and X-ray detectors. These upgrades will enable real-time monitoring of gases produced by radiolysis and enhance the nuclear microprobe’s gamma- and X-ray analysis capabilities.
At CIMAP, Controlling irradiation conditions and studying material ageing in real time
The CIMAP Laboratory is partner in project 5, dedicated to cross-cutting infrastructure and equipment. Its contribution is linked to the CIRIL platform on the GANIL site, dedicated to improving the facility capacity either for high temperature irradiations or for on line or in-situ analysis of material modification under irradiation through the implementation of an Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) spectrometer. Adding the ESR spectrometer on an ion beamline will advantageously complement the spectrometry analyses already available at CIRIL, but most importantly will be one of the kind for high energy ion beamlines.
These set-ups will be used across a large range of materials and applications, starting from the study of materials of interest for the nuclear power industry to applications in biology or basic material science. The ESR spectrometer is dedicated to any material presenting unpaired electrons. In CIMAP, this spectrometer will be used for the study of the radiation-induced oxidation kinetics in polymers with the aim of modelling their ageing for prediction purpose (for polyolefines recycling as an exemple).
Through these three contributions, IRAMIS is bringing its expertise in materials science and its experimental capabilities to the research conducted within the SCIAM programme.