November 27 - December 4, 2020
November 27 - December 4, 2020 (Virtual)
2020 MRS Spring/Fall Meeting

Symposium F.EN08-Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management

Management of nuclear waste is a global challenge for further development of the nuclear power industry. Over the next few decades, scientists and technologists will need to design and implement an integrated understanding of the multi-scale processes involved in the processing, packaging, disposal and regulation of a wide variety of nuclear waste materials. This MRS symposium, first held in 1978, has emerged as the premier international meeting to address the fundamental and applied science of materials in the context of nuclear waste management.

The 44th symposium will discuss the key scientific challenges for the safe and effective management of spent nuclear fuel (SNF), and low-, intermediate-, and high-level nuclear wastes. This would include an overview of the international research and waste management programs around the world. Molten salt reactor waste and effluent management strategies, technologies for interim, short-term, and long-term storage and disposal, including mature processes as well as new and innovative technologies will be discussed. Waste forms and engineered barrier system (EBS) properties, interactions between engineered and geological systems, radiation effects, chemistry and transport of radionuclides, long-term predictions of repository performance and nuclear safeguards are just some other topics that will presented at the symposium by internationally renowned speakers and leading researchers in the field.

Topics will include:

  • Waste forms–Design, formulation, fabrication; effect of disposal conditions and radiation on properties of waste forms (SNF, glass, ceramic, cement…)
  • Development and scale up of processing technologies–Melt processing in joule-heated ceramic melter and cold crucible, hot isostatic pressing, cementation, and steam reforming
  • Behavior of spent nuclear fuel materials in different disposal environments
  • Geological disposal of radioactive wastes–Concepts, designs and materials; container corrosion; engineered barrier systems; radionuclide solubility, speciation, sorption and migration
  • Materials for sequestration and immobilization of volatile and long lived radionuclides, e.g., iodine-129 and technetium-99
  • Molten salt reactor waste and effluent management strategies
  • Strategies, processes and materials for the disposition of plutonium and fissile materials from civil and defense stockpiles
  • National waste management programs
  • Development and enhancement of safeguards concepts, methods and techniques, including development of analytical methods for nuclear forensics advancement
  • Cross-cutting topics–Recent developments and novel techniques in solid and liquid characterization, sensing and monitoring of radionuclides, and modeling tools

Invited Speakers:

  • Bruno Azambre (Université de Lorraine, France)
  • Dirk Bosbach (Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany)
  • Guillermo Delcul (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA)
  • Lara Duro (Amphos 21, Spain)
  • Lena Evins (Swedish Nuclear Fuel AB, Sweden)
  • Mitchell Greenhalgh (Idaho National Laboratory, USA)
  • Jonathan Icenhower (Corning Incorporated, USA)
  • Peter Keech (Nuclear Waste Management Organization, Canada)
  • Amanda Lines (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA)
  • Jenifer Locke (The Ohio State University, USA)
  • Rebecca Lunn (University of Strathclyde, Scotland)
  • Joanna McFarlene (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA)
  • Nieves Rodrigues (Centro Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas, Spain)
  • Anne-Magali Seydoux-Guillaume (Université Jean Monnet Saint-Étienne, France)
  • Stéphanie Szenknect (Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives, France)
  • Bill Weber (University of Tennessee, USA)
  • Bella Zubekhina (Khlopin Radium Institute, Russian Federation)

Symposium Organizers

Josef Matyas
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Radiological Materials & Technology Development
USA

Claire Corkhill
The University of Sheffield
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
United Kingdom

Daniel Gregg
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation
ANSTO Synroc
Australia

Kazuya Idemitsu
Kyushu University
Department of Applied Quantum Physics and Nuclear Engineering
Japan

Topics

absorption diffusion fracture hot isostatic pressing (HIP) kinetics nucleation & growth radiation effects simulation surface chemistry waste management