A better way to quantify radiation damage in materials

At the MIT Nuclear Reactor facility, it was nothing more than a piece of junk waiting to be thrown away in the back of a lab.However, it turned out to be the key to demonstrating a more comprehensive method for detecting structural damage at the atomic level in materials.

This method will aid in the creation of new materials and may support the continued operation of carbon-free nuclear power plants, thereby reducing global warming.

This new method, developed at MIT and other institutions, provides a means to probe defects created inside materials, including those that have been exposed to radiation, with a sensitivity that is five times greater than that of existing methods. All that was required to demonstrate this was a tiny titanium nut that had been removed from the reactor.