Briggs Research Site

Welcome to the Nuclear Materials Degradation Research Group!

Professor Samuel Briggs' Research Group is focused on improving our fundamental understanding of materials degradation and performance in extreme environments relevant to advanced and next-generation nuclear reactor systems, including liquid metal- and molten salt-cooled thermal and fast reactors. Group members utilize custom experimental facilities and state-of-the-art analysis and characterization tools to investigate how environmental stressors such as corrosion, radiation, and mechanical stressors affect the structure, chemistry, and properties of materials at the nanoscale and how this translates to macroscopic materials properties and performance in various advanced energy applications. Briggs' mutidisciplinary research group includes students with academic homes in both the School of Nuclear Science and Engineering and the Materials Science Program.