2. Nuclear Materials
”Engineering materials used in nuclear power plants”
v According to the International Atomic Energy Agency,
Nuclear Materials refers to the metal Uranium, Plutonium and
Thorium in any form.
v There are two groups of nuclear materials:
• Primary: Nuclear Fuels, Moderators, Coolants
• Secondary: Structural Materials, Shielding Materials
v Nuclear Energy Productions
Carbon-free electricity
Small land footprint
High power output
Reliable energy source
1
3. Nuclear Energy
“The foundation is harnessing the power of atoms”
By splitting apart, a process called fission, or combining them, called fusion
The resulting energy in the reactors ultimately produces electricity
Nuclear Fission Nuclear Fusion
Source: Adapted from National Energy Education Project (Public Domain)
Choosing the Right Reactor Materials
Source: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
The SUN
“Most powerful examples of a nuclear reactor”
2
4. Bottlenecks
“Associated with reactor materials”
v Exposed to very high temperature
v Long term damage by irradiations
v Severe mechanical stresses
v Nuclear waste management
v Ageing of current reactors
v Spent nuclear fuel reprocessing
v Innovative materials for future reactors
v …
Reactor Chemistry
“To play a role in meeting these challenges we need”
v Knowledge of nucleon-nucleus interaction
v Knowledge of decay properties of atoms
v Knowledge of neutronics, thermodynamics
v Knowledge of nuclear waste conditioning
v Optimizations of current reactor models
v Innovative reactor chemistry experiments
v Quantify and propagate the nuclear data
v …
3
5. Chemistry Control
“Relevance to the nuclear materials”
v Understand the behaviour of nuclear materials under irradiation
v Importance of characterization techniques at the atomic scale
Ø Experimental simulation of
irradiation effects by using ion beams
Solid
Ø Understand irradiation effects by
coupling experiments and modelling
Modelling
(ab initio, DFT, Molecular Dynamics,
Monte Carlo …)
Characterization
(ex & in situ: Ion Beam Analysis, TEM,
Raman, XRD …)
Irradiation
(Low and High
Energy Ions)
Doping
(Stable and Radioactive
Elements)
4
6. Materials Development
“Key to the success of the reactor technology”
Testing and
Characterization
Modeling
and
Simulation
Integration
of Data
Analytics
v Testing and Characterizations
o Speed of sample cycling and increasing information from
a single sample via a single characterization method
v Modelling and Simulations
o Accurate atomistic and mesoscale methods for nuclear
materials discovery and optimization
v Integration of Data Analytics
o Development and application of a standard database
and ML/DL methods to allow predictions of performance
5
