The Swedish Research Council has awarded SEK 108 million for research environments in nuclear technology at universities including KTH.
In August 2025, the Swedish Research Council published a call for proposals entitled “Funds for research environments in nuclear technology”.
A total of 15 applications were submitted to council and four were approved. The purpose is to create an environment and activities for basic research in nuclear technology at universities.
The researchers and fields being developed at KTH are:
Jonas Faleskog: Microstructure development, fatigue and fracture of metals through advanced manufacturing for long-term operation of nuclear reactors. Payam Pourmand: Safe life extension of nuclear power: Digital twin and AI for polymer aging and non-destructive condition monitoring. Mats Jonsson: Radiation-induced processes at the oxide-water interface.
Establishing a more advanced research environment across the nuclear industry
The purpose of research environment grants is to improve the management and environment for basic nuclear technology research.
This initiative aims to establish a larger, more advanced research environment with more active researchers, thereby attracting domestic and international researchers.
It also opens up opportunities for academic career paths in this field and may increase student interest. This initiative aims to strengthen our ability to attract doctoral candidates, students, and external project funding in these environments.
Improving safety across nuclear technology applications
Mats Jonsson, Professor of Nuclear Chemistry in the KTH Department of Chemistry, together with other contributing researchers, will focus on radiation-induced processes at the oxide-water interface, establishing a research environment for radiochemistry at phase interfaces.
“These types of processes occur in most parts of the nuclear fuel cycle and are extremely important from both a safety and process optimization perspective,” Johnson explained.
Until now, research in this area at KTH has been carried out mainly within Mats Jonsson’s group, but a grant from the Swedish Research Council has enabled the participation of more senior researchers.
“We hope to soon begin building a research environment that will also include doctoral students and postdocs who are active in this field but have other funding,” Johnson said.
“In addition to establishing and developing the environment, we will also develop methodologies for both experimental and theoretical research in the field of nuclear technology.”
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