«The explanation is, in brief, that in metals, irradiation
produces on
picosecond time scales a liquid - like zone, which during the cooling - down phase recombines much of the initially
produced damage, leading to a factor of 1/3 reduction in damage,» says Professor Kai Nordlund who was in lead of the team on search for more accurate predictions of usability of materials in nuclear environments, that now present their results freshly in Nature Communications.