Materials for Energy & Sustainability
EFrontiers in Materials for Advanced Nuclear Fission and Fusion Energy
Nuclear energy is gaining renewed momentum as a low-carbon solution to global energy demand. The performance, safety, and lifetime of fission and fusion reactors are fundamentally constrained by materials behavior under extreme conditions. This symposium addresses these challenges through experimental and modeling advances in nuclear materials science.
Scope:
This symposium focuses on recent scientific advances in materials for nuclear fission and fusion energy systems, with particular emphasis on structural materials, fuels, and functional ceramics operating under extreme environments. As reactor concepts evolve toward higher operating temperatures, harsher chemical conditions, extended lifetimes, and smaller or modular designs, materials performance and degradation increasingly represent the key technological limiting factors.
Understanding the evolution of materials subjected to irradiation, high temperatures, mechanical stress, and aggressive chemical environments remains a major scientific challenge. In both fission (Gen-II, Gen-III, Gen-IV, and SMR concepts) and fusion reactors, complex and interacting phenomena such as radiation damage accumulation, phase instability, swelling, embrittlement, and gas production govern component reliability and service life. Similar challenges arise in nuclear fuels and waste forms, where irradiation-induced microstructural and chemical changes strongly influence performance and safety.
This symposium provides a forum for presenting and discussing cutting-edge experimental, computational, and theoretical studies that address these challenges across multiple length and time scales. Topics include, but are not limited to: metallic structural materials and advanced ceramics for nuclear applications; irradiation effects in fuels, ceramics, and waste forms; radiation tolerance of nanostructured and composite materials; helium and hydrogen effects and their interaction with displacement damage; ionization-driven damage processes; and multiscale modeling approaches linking atomistic mechanisms to macroscopic mechanical and functional properties. Contributions that integrate experiments with modeling and that support the direct interpretation or simulation of irradiation experiments are particularly encouraged.
Hot topics to be covered by the symposium:
- Radiation tolerance of advanced alloys and ceramics;
- Materials challenges for SMRs, Gen-IV and fusion reactors;
- Helium and hydrogen effects on microstructure and mechanical integrity;
- Insitu and operando irradiation experiments;
- AI- and data-driven materials discovery;
- Multiscale modeling of damage evolution;
- Nanostructured and composite materials for extreme environments;
- Fuels, cladding, and waste-form performance under irradiation.
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CentraleSupélec, Laboratoire SPMS, Bâtiment Eiffel / Campus Paris-Saclay, 3 rue Joliot-Curie, 91190 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
gianguido.baldinozzi@centralesupelec.frDepartment of Materials Design and Manufacturing, School of Engineering, Harrison Hughes Building, Brownlow Hill, L69 3GH, UK
maulik@liverpool.ac.ukP.O. box 2340, 76125 Karlsruhe, Germany
thierry.wiss@ec.europa.eu409 Atomistilor, Magurele, Ilfov, Romania
valentin.craciun@inflpr.ro