Viewpoint Set on Nuclear Materials Science
Materials science has historically played critical roles in developing today’s nuclear energy systems. The current mainstream nuclear materials such as the zirconium alloys for fuels and core components and the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steels were essential enabling materials for present day nuclear power and they undergo continued science-based fine tuning. Discovery of void swelling and other radiation effect phenomena in a fast neutron spectrum is largely responsible for the development of modern nuclear steels with enhanced radiation tolerance and, to a certain extent, the struggle of fast spectrum reactor development. Understandings the effects of neutron irradiation and the operating thermochemical environment in heat-resistant alloys, core graphite, and SiC-coated particle fuels have enabled the high temperature helium cooled reactors as a passively safe nuclear energy technology that is now anticipating mass deployment.