Abstract
Nuclear energy is presently the single major low-carbon electricity source in Europe and is overall expected to maintain (perhaps eventually even increase) its current installed power from now to 2045. Long-term operation (LTO) is a reality in essentially all nuclear European countries, even when planning to phase out. New builds are planned. Moreover, several European countries, including non-nuclear or phasing out ones, have interests in next generation nuclear systems. In this framework, materials and material science play a crucial role towards safer, more efficient, more economical and overall more sustainable nuclear energy. This paper proposes a research agenda that combines modern digital technologies with materials science practices to pursue a change of paradigm that promotes innovation, equally serving the different nuclear energy interests and positions throughout Europe. This paper chooses to overview structural and fuel materials used in current generation reactors, as well as their wider spectrum for next generation reactors, summarising the relevant issues. Next, it describes the materials science approaches that are common to any nuclear materials (including classes that are not addressed here, such as concrete, polymers and functional materials), identifying for each of them a research agenda goal. It is concluded that among these goals are the development of structured materials qualification test-beds and materials acceleration platforms (MAPs) for materials that operate under harsh conditions. Another goal is the development of multi-parameter-based approaches for materials health monitoring based on different non-destructive examination and testing (NDE&T) techniques. Hybrid models that suitably combine physics-based and data-driven approaches for materials behaviour prediction can valuably support these developments, together with the creation and population of a centralised, “smart” database for nuclear materials.
Highlights
With 685 TWhe produced in 2020, which corresponds to 1⁄4 of the total production from all sources, nuclear energy is the single largest source of low-carbon electricity in the European Union; see Figure 1 [1]
We propose a research agenda that, based on the exploitation of modern digital technologies combined to materials science practices, pursues a change of paradigm, which is deemed suitable to promote innovation and should be the way to go for the future in the nuclear materials field, in Europe and elsewhere
An alternative path has recently started to be intensively pursued, which consists in using modern digital techniques such as artificial intelligence (AI)— used for the analysis of data obtained from materials health monitoring (Section 3.3)—to extract relevant materials features from large amounts of data: so-called data-driven modelling [172,173]
Summary
With 685 TWhe produced in 2020, which corresponds to 1⁄4 of the total production from all sources, nuclear energy is the single largest source of low-carbon electricity in the European Union; see Figure 1 [1]. This obliges to operation at temperatures well-above those of current LWR (about 300 ◦ C), because liquid metals or molten salts need to remain fluid and must be kept above their melting point, in ranges between 400 and 500 ◦ C as inlet temperature With these fluids it is envisaged that outlet temperatures up to 700 ◦ C or above should be reached, thereby increasing significantly the thermal efficiency with respect to current LWRs. In summary, GenIV systems significantly reduce the quantity of the transuranic waste and its longterm hazard, optimise the use of fuel resources available on earth and enable high safety standards. High temperature reactors (HTR) that used graphite as moderator, but adopted different fuel designs and employed He as coolant, have been operated in the past, with outlet temperatures round 750 ◦ C [36–38] They are known technology and can be already considered for low-carbon industrial heat production in addition to electricity (cogeneration), including hydrogen production by thermal, rather than electrolytical, processes, provided that they are considered attractive enough by industrial heat and hydrogen consumers.
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