Symposium SF01—Materials Research Needs to Advance Nuclear Fuels, Structural Materials and Wasteforms

Rising global energy demand and the adverse environmental impact of fossil energy sources have led to renewed interest in increasing the share of energy coming from power nuclear reactors. Some of the key materials challenges facing nuclear technology include understanding and predicting material performance in often synergistic, extreme conditions. Novel ceramic materials and approaches help to advance the utilization of nuclear energy in a manner consistent with the goals of proliferation resistance, and energy sustainability, while ensuring waste reduction and thus improving public perception. This symposium will bring together experimentalists, theoreticians, and modelers to discuss the innovations needed to develop the next generation of materials and fuels for nuclear applications and to understand the performance of existing ceramic materials under extreme operating conditions.

Topics will include:

Nuclear fuels of current and future reactors
Advanced reactor cladding and structural materials
Advances in nuclear materials characterization
Multiscale modeling of materials for extreme environments
Radiation damage in nuclear ceramics
Radiation effects and performance of nanomaterials
Lifetime extension of reactor materials
Development of glass, glass-ceramics and ceramic wasteforms
Development of geopolymers for nuclear applications
Material challenges for Small Modular Reactors

Invited Speakers:

Benjamin Beeler (North Carolina State University, USA)
Colin Boxall (Lancaster University, United Kingdom)
Marco Cologna (European Commission Joint Research Centre, Germany)
Chaitanya Deo (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)
Lionel Desgranges (Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives, France)
Sarah Finkeldei (University of California, Irvine, USA)
Christine Gueneau (Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives, France)
Lingfeng He (Idaho National Laboratory, USA)
Peter Hosemann (University of California, Berkeley, USA)
Maik Lang (University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA)
Simon Middleburgh (Bangor University, United Kingdom)
Nathalie Moncoffre (Institut de Physique des 2 Infinis de Lyon, France)
Gabriel Murphy (Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany)
Claire Onofri (Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives, France)
Sylvain Peuget (Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives, France)
Damien Prieur (Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Germany)
Farida Selim (Bowling Green State University, USA)
Takeshi Sonoda (Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, Japan)
Kostya Trachenko (Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom)
Blas P. Uberuaga (Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA)
Sven van den Berghe (SCK CEN, Belgium)
William J. Weber (University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA)
Karl Whittle (University of Liverpool, United Kingdom)
Kazuhiro Yasuda (Kyushu University, Japan)
Di Yun (Xi'an Jiaotong University, China)
Zhaoming Zhang (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Australia)