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Crystals
Special Issues
Emerging Nuclear Materials
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Emerging Nuclear Materials

A special issue of Crystals (ISSN 2073-4352). This special issue belongs to the section "Materials for Energy Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2023) | Viewed by 4684

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Bo Huang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Sino-French Institute of Nuclear Engineering and Technology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai 519082, China
Interests: nuclear materials; irradiation effect; corrosion/erosion; materials processing; mechanical properties; microstructure
Dr. Peng Song

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Research Department Nuclear Energy and Safety, Paul Scherrer Institut, 5232 Villigen, Switzerland
Interests: oxide diserpsion strengthed steels; max phases, small-specimen test technology; micro-mechanics; electron microscopic analysis; ion-iradiation effects; finite element method simulation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

More extreme conditions in future nuclear energy systems, such as Gen IV fission reactors, fusion reactors, and charged particle accelerators, require materials to operate under higher temperatures, higher dpa, and more corrosive environments than those in current Gen II or Gen III systems. Longer lives than the current fleet of commercial power are also expected, which may stretch to 80–100 years. The more aggressive environments combined with longer lifetimes of Gen IV systems present a challenge to material performance, requiring significant improvements in the thermal, chemical, and radiation stability of nuclear materials. As a response to these requirements, advanced nuclear materials are emerging, and some of them have been deemed to be promising options for structural materials and fuels in advanced reactors and LWRs operating with extended lifetimes.

This Special Issue, entitled “Emerging Nuclear Materials”, aims to collect original research articles and reviews focusing on novel developments and new processing methodologies in the fabrication of nuclear materials, as well as its performance characterization in nuclear applications. Experimental, theoretical, and computational aspects of either the fundamental or applied nature of the emerging nuclear materials are welcome.

Dr. Bo Huang
Dr. Peng Song
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Crystals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • nuclear materials
  • advanced materials
  • materials processing
  • irradiation effects
  • microstructure

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 6269 KiB  
Article
Corrosion Performance of Commercial Alloys and Refractory Metals in Conditions for Electrorefining of Spent Nuclear Fuels
by Yanhong Jia, Shuangshuang Chang, Xin Du and Shaoqiang Guo
Crystals 2023, 13(5), 817; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst13050817 - 14 May 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1331
Abstract
Molten LiCl-KCl salt and liquid cadmium are proposed as the electrolyte and the reactive cathode for the electrorefining of spent nuclear fuels, but they can be corrosive to the structural alloys. The down-selection of existing materials through corrosion testing is necessary to ensure [...] Read more.
Molten LiCl-KCl salt and liquid cadmium are proposed as the electrolyte and the reactive cathode for the electrorefining of spent nuclear fuels, but they can be corrosive to the structural alloys. The down-selection of existing materials through corrosion testing is necessary to ensure the longevity of the electrorefiner vessel and electrode assemblies. Haynes C276, Inconel 600, AISI 316L stainless steel, and 42CrMo low-alloy steel were exposed to a LiCl-KCl melt at 500 °C for 500 h in an argon atmosphere. All alloys suffered from dissolution attacks with the presence of oxide islands or a porous oxide layer on the surface. AISI 316L, T91 steel, and tungsten specimens were submitted to corrosion tests in liquid cadmium at 500 °C for 120 h. The corrosion of AISI 316L and T91 stainless steel was predominated by chemical oxidation, with the additional occurrence of severe Ni dealloying and Cd penetration on AISI 316L. Destabilization of the Cr oxide layer by cadmium was discovered, resulting in the formation of CdCrO4. Tungsten only suffered from a dissolution attack at a rate of 0.50 mm/a. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Nuclear Materials)
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13 pages, 2126 KiB  
Article
Structural Properties of He-Irradiated Zr/Nb Multilayer Investigated by Grazing Incidence X-ray Diffraction
by Tao Wang, Bingsheng Li, Jun Li, Haiyuan Wei, Junjun Zhou, Pan Dong, Jie Li and Vladimir Krsjak
Crystals 2023, 13(3), 451; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst13030451 - 4 Mar 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1640
Abstract
Zr/Nb nanoscale multilayers are regarded as one of the important candidate materials used in next-generation reactors. Understanding structural evolution induced by ion bombardment is crucial for the evaluation of lifetime performance. Magnetron sputter-deposited Zr/Nb multilayers with a periodicity of 7 nm were subjected [...] Read more.
Zr/Nb nanoscale multilayers are regarded as one of the important candidate materials used in next-generation reactors. Understanding structural evolution induced by ion bombardment is crucial for the evaluation of lifetime performance. Magnetron sputter-deposited Zr/Nb multilayers with a periodicity of 7 nm were subjected to 300 keV He ion irradiation with three different fluences at room temperature. The depth-resolved strain and damage profiles in the Zr/Nb multilayers were investigated by grazing incidence X-ray diffraction. The tensile strain was found in the deposited Zr/Nb films. After He ion irradiation, the intensity of diffraction peaks increased. The change in diffraction peaks depends on He fluence and incident angle. Irradiation-induced pre-existing defect annealing was observed and the ability to recover the microstructure was more significant in the Zr films compared to the Nb films. Furthermore, the efficiency of defect annealing depends on the concentration of pre-existing defects and He fluence. When the He fluence exceeds the one for pre-existing defect annealing, residual defects will be formed, such as 1/3<12¯10> and 1/3<11¯00> dislocation loops in the Zr films and 1/2<111> dislocation loops in the Nb films. Finally, introducing deposited defects and interfaces can improve the radiation resistance of Zr/Nb nanoscale multilayers. These findings can be extended to other multilayers in order to develop candidate materials for fusion and fission systems with high radiation resistance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Nuclear Materials)
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11 pages, 3200 KiB  
Article
Two-Step Fabrication of BPO4 Ceramics with Acid Corrosion Resistance and Neutron Shielding Performance
by Yi Zhang, Yuanbing Li, Shujing Li, Wenbao Jia, Ruoyu Chen and Dong Lao
Crystals 2022, 12(10), 1371; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst12101371 - 27 Sep 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1149
Abstract
There has been an urgent demand for novel neutron shielding materials (NSMs) with high mechanical strength and low acid corrosion rate to be used in compact shielding design. In this contribution, BPO4 ceramics (BPCs), one of the candidates for such materials, was [...] Read more.
There has been an urgent demand for novel neutron shielding materials (NSMs) with high mechanical strength and low acid corrosion rate to be used in compact shielding design. In this contribution, BPO4 ceramics (BPCs), one of the candidates for such materials, was successfully fabricated by a two-step method using H3BO3 and H3PO4 as raw materials. The evolution of the microstructures was then investigated, followed by testing of mechanical/thermal properties, acid corrosion resistance, and neutron shielding performance. The experimental results indicated that the calcination temperature as well as H3BO3 content in raw materials intuitively affected the densification process of the BPCs. The as-pared BPCs showed reliable mechanical properties with maximum CMOR, compressive strength and elastic modulus of 26.99 MPa, 86.89 MPa and 28.42 GPa, respectively, which also showed a high neutron shielding rate and low acid corrosion rate of 65.11% and 0.016%. The obtained results imply that the BPCs was a promising NSM for use in compact shielding design. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Nuclear Materials)
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