| Scope |
Rapid development, evaluation, qualification, and licensing of nuclear materials are critical to deploying advanced nuclear power systems to timely meet zero-emission goals. The response of reactor fuel, core, and structural materials to irradiation is vital to the system's performance. These four steps can be accelerated from the traditional way by focusing on understanding the governing mechanisms of the thermomechanical properties, which often rely on the microstructure and microchemistry. Advanced lower-length modeling methods allow to systematize the prediction of promising materials while advanced manufacturing techniques broaden the envelope of microstructure engineering and enable rapid prototyping. Continuous development of accelerated irradiation testing technologies, such as accelerators and test reactors, is accompanied by advances in material modeling, in-situ and post-irradiation characterization techniques for microstructure and properties. The resultant abundant and high-quality experimental and lower-length modeling data are designed to provide input to develop and verify engineering-scale modeling and simulation tools, which are essential to modern material system design and integral performance analyses. Key to demonstrating the suitability of such experimental techniques to understanding material performance in an applied setting is the integration with mechanistic models and quantification of uncertainty.
This symposium will focus on recent results produced from nuclear-material development and irradiation programs worldwide and cover fundamental and applied science aspects of accelerated nuclear materials manufacturing and testing for fission and fusion reactors. Presentations integrating experiments with theory, modeling, and simulation to develop the methodologies for accelerated qualification and enhance our understanding of radiation-induced degradation in materials are especially encouraged.
Abstracts are solicited for (but not limited to) the following irradiation program topics:
- Fundamental science of radiation damage and defect processes
- Microstructure and property changes in response to irradiation
- Processing-microstructure-property correlations in nuclear materials
- Fluence, flux, dose, and dose-rate effects in materials
- In-situ and accelerated testing of materials
- Accelerated development and advanced fabrication techniques of current and advanced nuclear materials |