Modelling in nuclear energy environments

Producing energy to supply the demands of our societies is reaching a critical limit. To tackle this issue, there is a slow renaissance of fission reactors and the push to realise fusion reactors. The safe, reliable and optimal performance of fusion and fission plants is dependent on the choice of suitable materials used as components and fuels. As these materials are degraded by their exposure to high temperatures, irradiation and a corrosive environment, it is necessary to address the issue of long term degradation of materials under service exposure in advanced plants. A higher confidence in life-time assessments of these materials requires an understanding of the related physical phenomena on a range of scales from the atomic level of single defect energetics all the way up to macroscopic effects.