Fossil, nuclear, and concentrated solar power generation systems all rely on elevated temperature turbines to generate electricity, and nickel based superalloys are needed to withstand the extreme environments experienced in these systems.  Current research is focused on better understanding and predicting the elevated temperature fatigue and creep fatigue behavior of nickel based superalloys for gas turbines, advanced ultrasupercritical steam turbines, and very high temperature nuclear reactors.  
 
Research is funded by the US Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP)