This project is centered on the application of atomistic methods in order to investigate the stability and diffusion of intra-granular xenon clusters within the metallic nuclear fuel UMo.
Uranium – molybdenum alloys UMo present excellent thermal properties and a good uranium density. For those reasons, they are considered as nuclear fuel candidates for research reactors. It is therefore crucial to deploy new computational methodologies in order to investigate the evolution of their thermophysical properties under irradiation conditions.
During this PhD project, you will be in charge of validating (and, if necessary, recalibrating) the atomistic computational models for UMo that have been published in the literature. You will then apply those to the simulation of the stability and diffusion of small xenon clusters (typically up to 5 xenon atoms) within UMo crystals. Those computations will be performed leveraging accelerated molecular dynamics methods, and systematically compared to the results obtained for the reference nuclear fuel UO2. The results will also be analyzed by comparison to experimental measurements performed within the department, as well as used as reference data for larger-scale nuclear fuel performance codes. The results of your research will be published in scientific journals, and you are expected to attend international conferences to present your findings.
Those different investigations will allow you to acquire a set of competences applicable to many areas of materials science: ab initio calculations, machine-learning adjustment of interatomic potentials, classical and accelerated molecular dynamics, as well as many elements of statistical physics and condensed matter physics, which are among the areas of expertise of the PhD advisors.
The PhD will be based in the Fuel Behavior Modeling Laboratory (IRESNE Institute, CEA Cadarache), a dynamic research environment within which you will have the opportunity to interact with other PhD students. You will also benefit from a rich collaborative network (experimental researchers from the department, ISAS Institute at CEA Saclay, CINAM Laboratory in Marseille), that will allow you to become a member of the nuclear materials research community.