Materials Research
Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program’s Materials Research pathway conducts research and development to understand long-term environmental degradation behavior and create technologies for its mitigation in key materials in nuclear power plants.
Extending reactor service lifetimes to 60 years and beyond increases the demands on materials and components. Therefore, an early evaluation of the possible effects of an extended lifetime is critical.
Objectives, Research Areas, and Outcomes
Objectives
Understand and predict the long-term behavior of materials.
Provide data and methods to assess performance and damage mitigation options for systems, structures and components essential to safe and economically sustainable nuclear power plant operations.
Deliver a sustainable business model that enables the U.S. nuclear industry to remain cost competitive.
Outcomes
- Reduce uncertainty at extended operations Increase operational efficiencies.
- Assess potential damage at extended operations.
- Reduce inspections needs and outages.
- Reduce costs and improve reliability.
