Symposium EN12-Hierarchical Materials for Nuclear Waste Management

The goal of the “Hierarchical Materials for Nuclear Waste Management” symposium is to provide a collaborative forum for the discussion of overcoming materials challenges and limitations in nuclear waste management. The design and development of robust novel hierarchical materials with properties specifically tailored to withstand nuclear applications and environments will be discussed.

The development of novel materials to overcome challenges and limitations in nuclear waste management are required to substantially reduce the environmental impact and cost associated with storage, transportation, and eventual disposal nuclear materials. Next-generation nuclear materials that can survive and function under the extremes of high temperature, high radiation flux and aggressive chemical corrosion, while simultaneously having improved selectivity and solubility for a targeted radionuclide(s) are needed.

The tunable porosity along with chemical and structural flexibility of hierarchical materials offers an excellent opportunity to develop novel materials with tailored performance and properties critical to more effective nuclear waste management. Advances in hierarchical materials such as salt inclusion materials (SIMs), metal organic frameworks (MOFs), porous silica, and surface functionalized nanoparticles assembled into hierarchical architectures can play crucial roles to overcome materials challenges in nuclear waste management. Areas where hierarchical materials can contribute are in sequestration and immobilization of radioactive waste, separation and extraction processes, and reduction in waste form degradation. However, limited knowledge is available about the behavior (physical, chemical, radiological and thermal stability) of hierarchical materials under extreme environments present in nuclear waste facilities that is needed in order to qualify them as materials for nuclear waste management applications.

Experts from the field of nuclear waste management and hierarchical materials will be invited to share their experience and understanding in both the fields. The advancement in the field of hierarchical materials will be utilized to find effective solutions to materials challenges faced by the nuclear waste management.

Topics will include:

Materials degradation under extreme environments (thermal, irradiation, corrosion) and over varying time scales
Synthesis and design of hierarchical waste form materials for nuclear waste storage and material recovery
Modeling techniques for simulating hierarchical microstructures for nuclear waste applications
Synchrotron based X-ray methods to characterize simulated and radioactive hierarchical materials
Characterization of radiation induced defects and their effect on hierarchical microstructure stability

Invited Speakers:

Eric Dooryhee (Brookhaven National Laboratory, USA)
Sandrine Dourdain (Institut de Chimie Séparative de Marcoule, France)
Rodney Ewing (Stanford University, USA)
Tracey Hanley (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization, Australia)
Thomas Hartmann (University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA)
Wang Jianwei (Louisiana State University, USA)
Maik K. Lang (University of Tennessee, USA)
Jie Lian (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA)
Vittorio Luca (Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica, Argentina)
Zhang Ming (Material Institute, Chinese Academy of Engineering Physics, China)
May Nyman (Oregon State University, USA)
Simon Phillipot (University of Florida, USA)
Murielle Rivenet (Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Lille, France)
Gregory Schenter (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA)
David K Shuh (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA)
Lindsay Shuller-Nickles (Clemson University, USA)
Lynda Soderholm (Argonne National Laboratory, USA)
Ming Tang (Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA)
Eric Vance (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization, Australia)
William Weber (University of Tennesse, USA)
Wang Yifeng (Sandia National Laboratories, USA)
Hanno zur Loye (University of South Carolina, USA)