Chair(s): |
Fanny BALBAUD, France |
Secretary: |
Alice DUFRESNE (alice.dufresne@oecd-nea.org) |
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Vice-Chair(s): |
Celine CABET, France Lorenzo MALERBA, Spain | ||
Member(s): | All NEA member countries* | ||
Russia (Suspended*) | |||
*Russian Federation suspended pursuant to a decision of the OECD Council. | |||
EU participation: |
The European Union (EU) takes part in the work of the NEA, in accordance with the NEA Statute and the Supplementary Protocol to the Convention on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. | ||
Observer(s)(International Organisation): |
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) By agreement | ||
Date of creation: | 15 January 2023 | ||
End of mandate: | 31 December 2024 |
Mandate (Document reference):
Mandate (Document extract):
Extract from document [NEA/NSC/WPFM(2022)1]
Background
At the invitation of the NEA Steering Committee to all NEA standing technical committees, the Nuclear Science Committee (NSC) launched a prioritisation exercise in 2020. As part of this process, the NSC mandate was revised and NSC activities were prioritised and restructured in order to improve efficiency and maintain the high standard of NSC deliverables, while addressing activities according to the priorities indicated by the member countries. As a result of the prioritisation effort, NSC activities were reformed under the guidance of the NSC Bureau. This has resulted in the consolidation of additional fuel and structural materials activities into the Working Party on Materials Science Issues in Nuclear Fuels and Structural Materials (WPFM). Under the WPFM, two new bodies will cover materials science aspects, one related to nuclear fuel (Expert Group on Fuel Materials or “EGFM”), and one related to structural materials (Expert Group on Structural Materials or “EGSM”).
Scope
Under the guidance of the NSC and the mandate of the WPFM, the EGSM is concerned with the task of conducting joint and comparative studies to:
Improve the understanding and modelling of the behaviour of structural materials under extreme conditions (such as high temperature, high dose rate and corrosive chemical environment) and for long service lifetime; and
Support the development, selection and characterisation of innovative structural materials with enhanced performances compared to currently deployed materials.
The EGSM will aim to develop/evaluate experimental methods and data assessment and preservation, together with the advancement of multi-scale modelling and simulation, with a focus on their mutual support to progress validated predictive methodologies for assessment and/or design purposes.
The structural materials that will be considered under the scope of the EGSM may comprise, but are not limited to:
Objectives
The EGSM will develop and maintain international cooperation between member countries on a range of scientific and engineering subjects, such as the following:
Working methods
The EGSM is a forum for discussion and information exchange. By promoting joint activities at the international level, it fosters collaboration among experts involved in the experimental and computational studies by doing the following:
The EGSM will report its progress at the annual meeting of the WPFM.
Membership
The EGSM is both a forum for international exchanges between experts and a task-oriented expert group that is composed of a diverse range of specialists in the field of nuclear structural materials. The expert group consists of specialists in multi-scale modelling and simulation of structural materials as well as specialists in experiments at multiple scales that relate to structural materials in nuclear systems.
Interactions
The EGSM will liaise closely with other NSC subsidiary bodies in order to ensure coordination of their respective programmes of work and provide advice and support, where required, and undertake common activities, where appropriate.
For information exchange and mutual support through sharing of expertise and reciprocal advice, the EGSM will liaise with materials science-related NEA joint undertakings such as the Accident Tolerant Fuel cladding bundle testing at QUENCH facility in KIT, Germany (QUENCH-ATF).
The EGSM will exchange information with FIDES-II and support its activities (especially on modelling and simulation of material behaviour under irradiation) as relevant and in compliance with the data dissemination policy. The efforts will include providing advice on the prioritisation of the data needs for the parameterisation and validation of nuclear materials modelling and simulation tools, and expertise on the analysis and interpretation of the experimental data related to the post irradiation examination studies.
The EGSM will liaise closely with other relevant NEA bodies to develop cross-cutting activities and provide advice and support where required. In particular, collaborations are envisaged with the activities undertaken under the auspices of the Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI), including the Working Group on Integrity and Ageing of Components and Structures (WGIAGE), and the Studsvik Material Integrity Life Extension (SMILE) joint project. Through the WPFM, EGSM will liaise with the Radioactive Waste Management Committee (RWMC) through the development of its new activities in the domain of the application of materials as a factor of optimisation of radioactive waste management programmes.
The EGSM will work closely with the NEA Data Bank on database and knowledge preservation activities.
The EGSM will collaborate with industry representatives, as relevant, and international organisations such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the European Commission (EC) and the Generation IV International Forum (GIF).
Deliverables
The EGSM will publish reports and journal articles stemming from EGSM activities. The activities will cover the following topic areas:
Specifically, the EGSM will: