The Nuclear Materials team at UC Berkeley has been awarded two competitive research grants from Helion Energy through its Hercules program.

https://www.helionenergy.com/articles/helion-hercules-fusion-research-funding/)

These awards recognize the team’s leading expertise in materials performance under extreme environments and support ongoing efforts to advance materials for fusion energy systems.

Leveraging the capabilities of the Materials Characterization Facility  (https://mcf.berkeley.edu/), the team will investigate both neutron-irradiated and plasma-exposed SiC composites. This work builds on an active collaboration with General Atomics and focuses on understanding degradation mechanisms, microstructural evolution, and performance limits under coupled extremes of radiation, temperature, and chemical exposure.

Through this research, the team aims to generate fundamental insights and actionable design principles for next-generation materials, contributing to the development of robust and reliable fusion energy systems.