Topic: Toward Radiation Resistant Materials for Conventional and Advanced Reactors

Speaker: Prof. Gary Was

　　　　 University of Michigan，USA

Abstract:

Radiation-induced degradation of materials in nuclear reactors has proved to be a more vexing and pervasive problem than anticipated. It has become clear that materials with greater radiation resistance are required both for life extension of conventional reactors and for the viability of advanced reactor concepts. Without more robust materials, LWR lifetimes will be limited and advanced concepts will not proceed beyond the design stage. While many “exotic” materials have been proposed that utilize very novel microstructure architectures, the achievement of improved materials in the immediate future will likely rely on modifications to conventional materials in ways that allow their rapid implementation. Even so, many obstacles impede near-term alloy development, such as production of well-controlled and uniform microstructures, fabricability and joinability of complicated microstructures, and the availability of irradiation facilities and post-irradiation examination and test facilities. This lecture will lay out the goals and the challenges of radiation resistant materials development and implementation to improve the integrity and performance of reactor components exposed to radiation-induced degradation. The focus will be on promising alloy/microstructure combinations and irradiation and assessment techniques.

Professor Was received his ScD from MIT in 1980. He is the Walter J. Weber, Jr. Professor of Sustainable Energy, Environmental and Earth Systems Engineering, and holds appointments in Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, and Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan. He has held position as Director of the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Energy Institute, Associate Dean of the College of Engineering and Chair of the Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences Department. Professor Was’ research is focused on materials for advanced nuclear energy systems and radiation materials science, including environmental effects on materials, radiation effects, ion beam surface modification of materials and nuclear fuels. Most recently his group has led the development of proton irradiation as a technique for emulating neutron irradiation effects in reactor structural materials and has conducted some of the first stress corrosion cracking experiments of austenitic and ferritic alloys in supercritical water.

During his tenure at the University of Michigan, Professor Was has graduated 28 Ph.D. students, created several graduate level courses dealing primarily with irradiation effects on materials, ion beam modification of materials and nuclear fuels. He served as chair of the Nuclear Engineering Department Heads Organization and co-authored the first ASEE report on Manpower in the Nuclear Industry. He has helped to organize more than a dozen technical symposia and is a member of the American Society for Engineering Education, Materials Research Society, ASM International, the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society, the NACE International, Sigma Xi and Tau Beta Pi. He was chair of the Materials Research Society, Fall 1994 meeting. He is director of three major laboratories at the University of Michigan: the Michigan Ion Beam Laboratory for Surface Modification and Analysis, the High Temperature Corrosion Laboratory, and the Irradiated Materials Testing Laboratory. Professor Was received the Presidential Young Investigator award from NSF in 1985 and in 1994 he received the Excellence in Research Award from the College of Engineering. He was awarded the Champion H. Matthews Award from TMS, the Outstanding Achievement Award and Special Achievement Award by the Materials Science and Technology Division of the American Nuclear Society and the 2008 Henry Marion Howe Medal from ASM. He is a Fellow of the Materials Research Society, ASM International, NACE International and the American Nuclear Society. Professor Was has published over 190 technical articles in referred, archival journals, presented over 300 conference papers, and delivered over 160 invited talks and seminars, and has published a graduate level textbook on Radiation Materials Science.