April 2 - 6, 2018
Phoenix, Arizona
2018 MRS Spring Meeting

Symposium EN17-Fundamental Materials Science to Enable the Performance and Safety of Nuclear Technologies

The aim of this symposium is to present and discuss fundamental materials science behind material design in nuclear related applications with particular emphasis on efficient production systems, improved operating life, performance and safety, maximum system availability, sustainability, and cost reduction. Materials challenges include, but are not limited to, understanding reactivity during accidents, cladding oxidation, hydriding and the evolution of mechanical properties, thermal conductivity, property evolution due to irradiation in general (swelling, creep, amorphization, hardening, etc.), chemical, mechanical and irradiation stability (waste forms). Innovative materials, advanced manufacturing, real time sensing, and microstructural sensitive design capabilities are aimed at addressing some of these challenges. The symposium is interested in fundamental materials research that guides these capabilities. Of specific interest are contributions that combine experimental discovery with modeling and simulation to develop predictive models of material behavior in nuclear environments.

Topics will include:

  • New designs and techniques allowing smart manufacturing, assembly and configuration of complex materials
  • New fuel forms and structural materials that enhance accident tolerance of exisiting and new nuclear reactors
  • The underlying mechanisms of ordering and disordering under irradiation at submicron scales
  • Nuclear fuels, inert matrices, waste forms, and transmutation targets
  • Phase transformation under high temperature, pressure, high heat or high particle flux
  • Methodologies, engineering and tools for system reconfiguration and disassembly of systems and their components for decommissioning or retrofitting nuclear facilities

Invited Speakers:

  • Jie Lian (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA)
  • Assel Aitkaliyeva (University of Florida, USA)
  • Benjamin Beeler (Idaho National Laboratory, USA)
  • Theodore Besmann (University of South Carolina, USA)
  • Michael Cooper (Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA)
  • Adrien Couet (University of Wisconsin, USA)
  • Philippe Garcia (CEA Cadarache, France)
  • Maria Okuniewski (Purdue University, USA)
  • Simon Phillpot (University of Florida, USA)
  • Markus Piro (University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Canada)
  • Manuel Pouchon (Paul Scherrer Institut, Switzerland)
  • David Simeone (CEA Saclay, France)
  • Julie Tucker (Oregon State University, USA)
  • William J. Weber (University of Tennessee, USA)
  • Michael Welland (Canadian Nuclear Laboratory, Canada)
  • Karl Whittle (University of Liverpool, United Kingdom)
  • Brian Wirth (University of Tennessee, USA)
  • Thierry Wiss (JRC Karlsruhe, Germany)

Symposium Organizers

David Andersson
Los Alamos National Laboratory
MST-8 Materials Science in Radiation and Dynamics Extremes
USA

Chaitanya S. Deo
Georgia Institute of Technology
George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
USA

Michael R. Tonks
University of Florida
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
USA

Topics

actinide kinetics neutron scattering nuclear materials phase transformation radiation effects scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) waste management x-ray diffraction (XRD)