Lightweight Materials Workshop
| Date: November 8-9, 2022 Location: Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls
Agenda
Workshop Organization Team: Vivek Agarwal, NS&T
Youssef A. Ballout, NS&T Robert A. Roach, NS&T
Dayna Daubaras, NUC
|
NUC Leads: Prof. Charles Forsberg, MIT Prof. Yousry Azmy, NCSU Prof. Todd S . Palmer, Oregon State University Prof. Carol Smidts, The Ohio State University Prof. Hank Lee, University of New Mexico
|
Workshop Scope:
An upcoming workshop will focus on the technology challenges, knowledge
gaps and research needs associated with developing, demonstrating and
applying lightweight materials. These materials can be used for successful
deployment and operation of simpli ed advanced reactor technologies. The
workshop is a collaboration between the Fission Battery Initiative, within Idaho
National Laboratory’s Nuclear Reactor Sustainment and Expanded Deployment
Initiative, and the National University Consortium.
The workshop will include presentations and discussions on topics related to
advanced manufacturing, modeling and simulation, artificial intelligence and
testing and qualification capabilities.
The aim of this workshop is to understand technological challenges, knowledge gaps, and research needs associated with the development, demonstration, and application of light-weight materials for successful deployment and operation of simplified advanced reactor technologies.
The expected outcome of this workshop is to identify priority research directions advancing the light-weight materials research and development for advanced mobile reactor technologies such as microreactors and fission batteries.
Details on Lightweight Materials Workshop
The Fission Battery Initiative vision is to define, focus, and coordinate research and development of technologies that can fully achieve battery-like functionality for nuclear energy systems. The notion of a “fission battery" conveys a vision focused on realizing very simple “plug-and-play" nuclear systems that can be integrated into a variety of applications requiring affordable, reliable energy in the form of electricity and/or heat and function without operations and maintenance staff. In order to formalize the desired functionality, the initiative has adopted the following attributes to be achieved: economic, standardized, installed, unattended and reliable.
As microreactors and fission batteries, need to be transported (from manufacturing location to deployment site, between different deployment sites during their operational lifetime or after the completion of their mission or operational lifetime back to the manufacturing site) and ready for operation at different deployment sites with no or minimal onsite infrastructures (that could be onshore or offshore or co-sited with other distributed energy sources). Research to achieve the mobility and siting of microreactors and fission batteries should consider design and materials that significantly reduce overall system weight while achieving radiation shielding and structural resilience.
