News, media & research

Science is coming to the aid of railway engineers in Australia to help them produce and maintain safer and longer lasting rail lines that could be used around the world through the use of neutron diffraction.

A new model developed by research scientists at ANSTO to predict the structural changes in stainless steel during welding could help improve safety and integrity in critical engineering components.

Semiconductor gamma-ray and X-ray detectors are being used increasingly in medicine, industry, astronomy and national security.

ANSTO's Dr Philip Bendeich recently spoke to the engineering industry magazine PACE about the science of welds and how his work can benefit Australian industry.  

Since the 1980s, ANSTO has been a world leader in nuclear waste form research and is now extending its waste form activities into developing nuclear materials for the next generation of reactor technologies.

The United States will soon require all trade partners to perform passive radiation screening on 100% of cargo at the country of origin, due to the rise of illicit trafficking of radiological and nuclear material.

Materials for future nuclear applications all share one important property: the ability to maintain functionality during exposure to extreme levels of irradiation.

The collection, handling and analysis of forensic evidence from a radiological crime scene presents significant challenges.

Reactor engineering seeks to improve the safety and increase the efficiency of nuclear reactors. Research conducted at ANSTO in this area looked at a technique 'roll swaging' and its role in ensuring the integrity of fuel plates during nuclear operations.  

ANSTO’s material engineers have been recognised for their expertise and innovation in welding technology with a prestigious award from the Welding Technology Institute of Australia (WTIA).

The calcium titanium oxide mineral perovskite may play a significant role in handling radioactive materials in next generation nuclear reactors with research showing their remarkable radiation tolerance.

New innovations in waste reduction and recycling that are being developed at ANSTO have the potential to minimise reprocessing requirements of future nuclear fuels. 

Materials which are required to allow a chemical reaction to proceed at a useful rate, but are left unchanged by the overall chemical reaction, are called catalysts.

Ionic liquids are simply salts with a melting point below 100ºC. Many melt below room temperature, hence their name. Their varied physical and chemical properties are interesting as they can be employed in improving various chemical processes.

In the first experimental data obtained with the new triple-axis spectrometer TAIPAN at the OPAL reactor, we measured a superionic conductor. 

Metal welds of different metal compositions are a frequent joining method of two sections in the construction of nuclear power facilities. Here we report on our computer simulation of one of these “dissimilar” metal welds in a pressuriser safety relief line. 

Plastic deformation of metals is inherently linked to the microstructure of materials, defining their mechanical properties and thermal behaviour. For the first time we have continuously followed the in situ evolution of embedded bulk grains of copper.

Studying the mechanisms of piezoelectric materials requires instrumentation that can provide short real-time measurements. Wombat is capable of performing high-speed stroboscopic measurements down to the sub-millisecond time scale. 

 ANSTO's Structural Integrity and Material Research Unit is actively engaged with the modelling and simulation of material responses to high strain-rate and high temperature phenomena. 

We study the structure and dynamics of a metal organic framework compound using neutron scattering and modelling methods in order to understand why this material shrinks when it is heated.