Symposium ES5-Materials Research and Design for A Nuclear Renaissance

For the first time in nearly forty years, large-scale nuclear power is seeing a resurgence around the world. Unlike the first wave of nuclear power expansion, this time two things have changed: 1) A far wider spectrum of countries is considering nuclear power for the first time, and 2) The first wave of nuclear power startup companies, spanning the range of small modular reactors (SMRs), Generation IV (Gen IV) fission reactors, and small-scale fusion reactors has exploded onto the scene. These companies’ reactor designs, such as those by NuScale, Terrapower, Transatomic, General Fusion, and others, will face previously unseen challenges related to continued materials performance in environments more prone to materials degradation via new mechanisms of corrosion, high irradiation dose, and long-term mechanical degradation than any nuclear system seen before. The already established fusion projects, like ITER or the demonstration fusion power plant (DEMO) development program, in their assessment of materials issues have highlighted a number of issues critical to the success of such projects.
The focus of this symposium will be on materials to enable this next generation of nuclear fission or fusion reactors, which by virtue of their size, their operating principles, and the need for longer-term, safer performance, must meet previously unseen materials performance criteria with higher levels of certainty. Particular attention will be paid to materials experiments, simulations, and theory concerning performance in new Gen IV fission reactors, plasma-facing and first wall components for fusion systems, long-lived (60-100 year) light water reactors, and new, accident-tolerant fuel and cladding designs to improve existing and future nuclear reactor performance. Abstracts will be solicited both from industry, from chief technology and engineering staff who can speak broadly about requirements for advanced reactor materials, as well as from leading academics and national/international laboratory staff researching the science and engineering of advanced reactor materials performance and development.
This symposium is the 5th of a series of bi-annual symposia on materials for nuclear energy within MRS Fall meetings since 2008.

• Materials development and performance in Generation IV fission reactors, including high-temperature gas, molten salt fuel and coolant, liquid metals, and supercritical fluids
• Development and characterization of materials to withstand high amounts of radiation damage, simulation of high level of neutron damage using ion irradiation
• Novel characterization techniques of materials behavior under irradiation, stress, corrosion, temperature including 3D tomography, in situ methods
• Accident-tolerant fuel and cladding development for light water and other reactors
• Plasma-surface interactions and materials for first-wall fusion applications
• He and H effects, their synergy with radiation defects, and swelling
• Long-term (>50 years) material degradation in nuclear systems
• Modeling damage evolution and phase stability in fuel, structural and nanostructured materials
• Direct simulation of experiments through multiscale modelling enabled by high performance computing

• ES5_Materials Research and Design for A Nuclear Renaissance _0 (University Lille 1, France)
• ES5_Materials Research and Design for A Nuclear Renaissance _1 (Scientific Advisory Board of the Government of India, India)
• ES5_Materials Research and Design for A Nuclear Renaissance _2 (Tohoku University, Japan)
• ES5_Materials Research and Design for A Nuclear Renaissance _3 (Terrapower, Inc, USA)
• ES5_Materials Research and Design for A Nuclear Renaissance _4 (Oxford University, United Kingdom)
• ES5_Materials Research and Design for A Nuclear Renaissance _5 (National Nuclear Laboratory, United Kingdom)
• ES5_Materials Research and Design for A Nuclear Renaissance _6 (CEA Cadarache, France)
• ES5_Materials Research and Design for A Nuclear Renaissance _7 (Muroran Institute of Technology, Japan)
• ES5_Materials Research and Design for A Nuclear Renaissance _8 (General Fusion, Canada)
• ES5_Materials Research and Design for A Nuclear Renaissance _9 (Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany)
• ES5_Materials Research and Design for A Nuclear Renaissance _10 (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany)
• ES5_Materials Research and Design for A Nuclear Renaissance _11 (Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden)
• ES5_Materials Research and Design for A Nuclear Renaissance _12 (University of Manchester, United Kingdom)
• ES5_Materials Research and Design for A Nuclear Renaissance _13 (National Research Nuclear University, Russian Federation)
• ES5_Materials Research and Design for A Nuclear Renaissance _14 (Texas A&M University, USA)
• ES5_Materials Research and Design for A Nuclear Renaissance _15 (University of Wisconsin, USA)
• ES5_Materials Research and Design for A Nuclear Renaissance _16 (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan)
• ES5_Materials Research and Design for A Nuclear Renaissance _17 (Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA)
• ES5_Materials Research and Design for A Nuclear Renaissance _18 (University of Michigan, USA)
• ES5_Materials Research and Design for A Nuclear Renaissance _19 (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)
• ES5_Materials Research and Design for A Nuclear Renaissance _20 (Materials Design S.A.R.L., France)