Midas Programme Grant

MIDAS is a £9M, 5-year, multi-institution programme, with core support from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). MIDAS is led by the University of Manchester, with core partners at Imperial College London, The University of Oxford, and UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). Nuclear fuel assemblies made from zirconium alloys are key reactor core structures, and understanding their performance is critical for safe, efficient operation of the commonly used Boiling Water Reactors (BWRs) and Pressurised Water Reactors (PWRs). While it might be assumed that fuel is taken out only when spent, it is removed once safe operation of the assembly can no longer be guaranteed, and therefore improving performance will reduce both reactor downtime and nuclear waste production. A step-change in performance requires physically informed predictions and safety cases, which the nuclear industry can only achieve with mechanistic understanding of material degradation under reactor conditions. Such a knowledge-base will enable operation of the next generation of reactors far more efficiently, significantly reducing the cost of nuclear power. MIDAS is utilising a carefully planned and conceived set of interconnected tasks to develop new mechanistic understanding of fuel assembly materials, greatly pushing forward our understanding of in-reactor performance. MIDAS aims to be game-changing in how we understand and assess irradiation damage effects in nuclear materials, and to provide key data to support the renewed assessment of Zirconium as a fusion material.