[Lecture] Accelerator Ion Beams as a Tool to Support Nuclear Energy R&D

Prof. Y.Q. Wang

Director of Ion Beam Materials Laboratory

Material Science at Irradiation and Dynamics Extremes Group

Materials Science and Technology Division

Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA

Time: 9:00 am, July 18th, 2016

Place: 205 meeting room, MSE building

[Abstract]

Mankind is facing unprecedented challenges in growing energy demands for economic sustainability and growth as well as adverse climate changes as a result of heavy reliance on carbon emission fossil fuels for many years. Nuclear energy currently makes up slightly >50% of the world's clean energy, yet its contribution to the global energy mix is still only a few %. To advance nuclear energy as a viable resource capable of meeting the global energy and environmental needs requires to resolve technical, cost, safety, proliferation resistance, and security barriers. Among the technical challenges is to find advanced materials that can endure very harsh radiation, high temperature and corrosive environments that exist in next generation advanced reactors or future fusion devices. In this presentation, I will first choose a few recent research activities at Los Alamos’ Ion Beam Materials Laboratory (IBML) to demonstrate the importance and appropriateness of using accelerator ion beams to conduct materials research in supporting of nuclear energy R&D. These activities range from ion beam materials characterization to ion irradiation damage studies in various materials. I will then briefly summarize the state of the art ion beam research facilities and their capabilities in the world that are primarily dedicated to materials research. Finally, I will discuss the opportunities and challenges that ion beam materials research community is facing in understanding and searching for new radiation tolerant materials relevant to nuclear energy applications.

[Profiles]

Prof. Yongqiang Wang is currently the director and scientist 4 of Iron Beam Materials Laboratory which belongs to Material Science and Technology Division in Los Alamos National Laboratory. He received his degree of Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics and Technology from Lanzhou University in 1992. During the doctoral research, he did his dissertation in Missouri State University as a research fellow from 1989 to 1992. After that, he stayed in theDepartment of Physics and Materials Science inMissouri State University as a postdoc fellow and assistant research professor from 1992 to 1995. He also served at Louisiana Accelerator Center in University of Louisiana from 1995 to 1997, and at the Institute of Technology’s Characterization Facility in University of Minnesota from 1998 to 2003. Then he moved to the present affiliation, Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2003. His research interests includeoperation and maintenance of various electrostatic accelerator/implanter systems; ion irradiation effects in nanostructured materials; materials analysis with various ion beam analysis techniques; ion beam modification of various films and structures; electrical and optical properties of ion implanted polymer films; and surface structural characterization of ion implanted polymers. He is the member of Advisory Editorial Board of Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, member of International Advisory Committee on Ion Beam Analysis and Review Editorial Board Member for Journal of Frontiers in Energy Research - Nuclear Energy.