F4) Materials for Nuclear Energy: Modelling, Experiments and Manufacturing

The symposium focuses on the scientific and engineering challenges in the development, characterization, testing, and deployment of nuclear materials capable of withstanding the extreme environments to be found in next-generation nuclear energy systems such as fission, fusion, and small modular reactors. The discussion spans across the full lifecycle of materials development – from discovery and testing to qualification, upscaling, deployment, and degradation management – emphasizing both fundamental understanding and technological implementation.

The symposium will focus on the following themes with potential topics in bullet form:

1. Materials Longevity and Degradation Mechanisms
   • Fundamental studies and predictive models of long-term material performance under nuclear-relevant operating conditions
   • Time-dependent degradation mechanisms, including creep, swelling, fatigue, and phase instability, with a special focus on those with incubation periods and non-linear progression
   • Development of materials with enhanced resistance to radiation-induced embrittlement and corrosion simultaneously
   • Aging effects in reactor structural materials (e.g., austenitic steels, ferritic-martensitic steels, ODS steels, SiC/SiC composites, tungsten alloys) and how to mitigate or ameliorate them
2. Coupled Effects in Materials for Nuclear Systems
   • Interactions of irradiation, high temperature, and corrosive environments (e.g., liquid metals, molten salts, high-pressure steam, supercritical CO₂)
   • Synergistic effects on microstructural evolution, defect dynamics, and mechanical/thermal property degradation, especially during irradiation
   • In situ studies of simultaneous corrosion and irradiation in candidate structural, cladding, and functional nuclear materials
   • Impact of tritium permeation, helium embrittlement, and transmutation product accumulation on material performance
3. Accelerated Nuclear Experimentation and Advanced Characterization
   • Ion beam and surrogate particle irradiation for high-throughput screening of radiation tolerance, including intermediate energy proton irradiation (IEPI)
   • Novel in situ testing under irradiation using synchrotron, neutron, and ion beam facilities
   • Non-destructive evaluation (NDE) and real-time diagnostic tools (e.g., thermography, acoustic emission, electron microscopy, or material property measurement under irradiation)
   • Development of miniaturized specimen testing protocols for reduced activation materials and radiation-shielded environments
4. Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) and Data-Driven Approaches
   • Multi-scale modeling of defect formation, transport, and accumulation
   • Machine learning and AI tools for predicting material degradation and optimizing alloy design
   • Digital twins and multiscale simulation frameworks for reactor materials life-cycle assessment
5. Scale-Up, Qualification, and Manufacturing
   • Advanced manufacturing routes for nuclear-grade materials, including additive manufacturing (AM), powder metallurgy, and hot isostatic pressing
   • Qualification pathways for novel manufacturing techniques for nuclear licensing
   • Standardization and certification challenges for fusion materials and next-gen reactor materials
   • Supply chain integration and economics of manufacturing and deploying new nuclear materials at scale
6. Applications Across Nuclear Energy Platforms
   • Structural and functional materials for Generation IV reactors, SMRs (Small Modular Reactors), and fusion reactors (e.g., ITER/DEMO and more rapidly commercializable, compact designs)
   • Materials for reactor internals, cladding, first walls, divertors, and heat exchangers
   • Design and testing of materials for accident-tolerant fuel systems and post-Fukushima safety standards