Journal of Nuclear Materials最新文献

{"title":"Machine learning for microstructure synthesis in fusion materials: A physics-aware validation framework for tungsten plasma-facing components","authors":"R. Juneja ,&nbsp;M. Wirtz ,&nbsp;J.W. Coenen ,&nbsp;J. Rapp ,&nbsp;E.A. Unterberg","doi":"10.1016/j.jnucmat.2026.156473","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jnucmat.2026.156473","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Fusion materials in magnetic fusion devices must tolerate extreme loading conditions. Tungsten remains the leading plasma-facing component (PFC) material, yet the microstructural variability governing its degradation under harsh conditions, including crack initiation, porosity evolution, and thermal fatigue, remains costly to characterize at scale. We developed a data-efficient generative workflow to synthesize realistic scanning electron microscopy (SEM) microstructures of tungsten for physics-aware data augmentation and rapid hypothesis testing under fusion-relevant environmental conditions. Starting from 3200 SEMs acquired from electron-beam (e-beam) heat flux exposure studies on tungsten, we tiled each image into fixed-field 256 × 256 grayscale patches and trained two models: a baseline model, conditional-GAN (c-GAN) and a style-based model, conditional StyleGAN2 with Adaptive Discriminator Augmentation (c-StyleGAN2-ADA). The latter adapts augmentation strength during training and is well suited to the small-data regime. Fidelity was assessed with a physics-aware validation suite: (i) image distributional similarity to real SEMs via Fréchet Inception Distance (FID) and Kernel Inception Distance (KID); (ii) microstructure realism via grain-size statistics derived from classical image analysis and comparison of grain-area statistics via Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) and Earth Mover’s Distance (EMD); and (iii) anti-memorization screening using nearest-neighbor searches with Learned Perceptual Image Patch Similarity (LPIPS). Notably, our trained c-StyleGAN2-ADA generator reproduced grain-size distributions that closely followed the real data while maintaining diversity and avoiding trivial copies, outperforming the c-GAN on both perceptual and physics-aware metrics. The approach yields physically plausible microstructures on demand and provides a basis to seed multi-scale degradation models, uncertainty analyses, and “virtual experiments” for PFC design when direct measurements are scarce.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":373,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Nuclear Materials","volume":"623 ","pages":"Article 156473"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146075089","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Corrosion mechanism of Ni-Cr alloy in boiling fluorine-containing nitric acid: Effect of chromium content","authors":"Xuanning Ma ,&nbsp;Zilin Gao ,&nbsp;Junhao Xu ,&nbsp;Zhongdi Yu ,&nbsp;Huan Li ,&nbsp;Lianwen Wang ,&nbsp;Jianping Xu","doi":"10.1016/j.jnucmat.2026.156466","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jnucmat.2026.156466","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The effect of chromium content on corrosion kinetics of nickel-based alloys was investigated using full-immersion tests and potentiodynamic polarization. Results demonstrate that increasing chromium (Cr) content reduces corrosion rates while shifting surface morphology from uniform to localized corrosion. XPS and EBSD analyses reveal that elevated Cr promotes duplex structure formation, generating porous Cr₂O₃ phases at phase boundaries. Fluoride ions (F⁻) penetrate along grain boundaries, inducing intergranular corrosion by preferential dissolution of Cr. Furthermore, Pourbaix diagrams thermodynamically confirm F⁻-accelerated dissolution of Cr/Ni oxides in acidic environments, exacerbating alloy corrosion.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":373,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Nuclear Materials","volume":"623 ","pages":"Article 156466"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146024744","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A deep learning interatomic potential model for the generation and evolution mechanisms of irradiation defects in yttrium hydride","authors":"Xi Wang ,&nbsp;Meng Tang ,&nbsp;Biao Xu ,&nbsp;Ji-Jung Kai ,&nbsp;Wangyu Hu ,&nbsp;Huiqiu Deng","doi":"10.1016/j.jnucmat.2026.156439","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jnucmat.2026.156439","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Yttrium hydride (YH₂) serves as a critical high-temperature moderator in advanced reactors, yet its performance under irradiation remains poorly understood. We have developed a high-accuracy deep potential for YH₂ with short-range corrections and validated its reliability in describing defect properties. Using this potential, we carried out threshold displacement energy calculations, which represent a critical irradiation parameter, together with cascade collision simulations. Our results reveal a pronounced elemental disparity in threshold displacement energy, with hydrogen exhibiting a mean value of 5.21 eV compared to 20.86 eV for yttrium, indicating significantly greater susceptibility to displacement. Defect formation probability calculations confirm that hydrogen dominates in initial damage production. Although large scale cascade simulations show complex damage evolution with substantial defect recombination during thermal spike quenching, persistent hydrogen vacancies constitute the majority of residual damage. The higher recovery rate of Y vacancies (∼80%) versus H vacancies (∼70%) reflects different recombination kinetics arising from the contrasting mobilities and lattice environments of Y (on fcc lattice sites) and H (on interstitial sites). These findings provide atomic scale insights into radiation damage behavior in YH₂, highlighting the critical role of H vacancy accumulation in long-term degradation of nuclear moderator materials.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":373,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Nuclear Materials","volume":"623 ","pages":"Article 156439"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146024746","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Molecular dynamics simulations of the influence of hydrogen clusters on hydrogen isotope exchange for tritium removal in tungsten vacancy","authors":"Tao Zhang ,&nbsp;Qihang Liu ,&nbsp;Yi-Lang Mai ,&nbsp;Ya-Wen Li ,&nbsp;Benxian Song ,&nbsp;Hao Wang ,&nbsp;Xiao-Chun Li ,&nbsp;Fei Sun ,&nbsp;Hai-Shan Zhou","doi":"10.1016/j.jnucmat.2025.156403","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jnucmat.2025.156403","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The retention of tritium (T) in plasma-facing materials significantly impacts the operational lifespan and safety of fusion reactors. Hydrogen isotope (HI) exchange offers a viable strategy for T removal in such reactors. While hydrogen (H) clusters are known to influence HI exchange behavior, the specific mechanisms and patterns of their effects remain unclear. In this study, we employed extended nanosecond-scale molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to investigate the influence of temperature, H concentration, and vacancy concentration on the formation of H clusters and subsequent HI exchange in tungsten (W). Our results indicate that increasing the temperature consistently enhances the rate of T removal. As the H concentration rises, H evolves from isolated atoms into rod-shaped clusters along the {100} and {110} crystal plane families, and further expands into platelet-like structures. During the isolated atom stage, the T removal rate continues to increase. However, in the platelet-like cluster stage, the removal efficiency initially rises and then declines. Additionally, high vacancy concentrations promote the widening of the isolated H atom stage. These findings provide valuable insights for optimizing T removal parameters in fusion reactors.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":373,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Nuclear Materials","volume":"622 ","pages":"Article 156403"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145882266","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Interfacial dislocation engineering in copper-graphene composites: Atomic insights into enhanced radiation resistance","authors":"Qi Zhang,&nbsp;Zhuoxin Yan,&nbsp;Zhe Yan,&nbsp;Boan Zhong,&nbsp;Mingyu Gong,&nbsp;Yue Liu,&nbsp;Tongxiang Fan","doi":"10.1016/j.jnucmat.2025.156423","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jnucmat.2025.156423","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Copper (Cu)-based materials suffer from performance degradation due to the accumulation of radiation-induced defects, limiting their application in high-radiation environments. The van der Waals (vdW) type interface formed by introducing graphene (Gr) into Cu-based materials is expected to address the challenge of modifying dislocation characteristics in metallic interface engineering. However, specific methods to modify the interface and their impacts on radiation resistance still need further investigation and quantification. Here, we investigate the interfacial vdW dislocation in Cu/Gr composites, in order to enhance radiation resistance via atomic simulations. The results reveal that increasing Gr rotation angle can lead to a rise in the interfacial dislocation density, while increasing Gr thickness broadens dislocation core width. Quantitative analysis reveals the optimal structural parameters: a critical 15° rotation angle and 4-layer thickness of Gr correspond to point defects reductions of up to 19.5 % and 35.6 %, respectively, compared to the unmodified interface. These findings are crucial for understanding and designing new vdW/metal composites with enhanced radiation resistance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":373,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Nuclear Materials","volume":"623 ","pages":"Article 156423"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145976099","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Understanding the structural and morphological effects of synthesis route on NpO2","authors":"Sara E. Gilson ,&nbsp;Kathryn M. Lawson ,&nbsp;Thomas Dyke ,&nbsp;Kayron Rogers ,&nbsp;Tamara Keever ,&nbsp;Andrew Miskowiec ,&nbsp;Tyler L. Spano","doi":"10.1016/j.jnucmat.2026.156460","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jnucmat.2026.156460","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The availability of actinide standard materials for use in nuclear safeguard applications is critical, as is thorough characterization thereof. Although accurate trace element compositions and isotopic considerations are paramount for deployment of reference standards, structural characterization is also essential towards accurately describing the chemical form and potential matrix effects in candidate materials. To this end, samples of NpO₂ were synthesized via a direct denitration (DD) method and probed with powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), Raman spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) for structural and morphological characterization and comparison with NpO₂ materials produced via modified direct denitration (MDD). PXRD confirmed the bulk identity of NpO₂, and no additional phases were identified using this method. Analysis of Raman data collected using a 532 nm excitation wavelength indicates that samples are mostly phase pure; however, some variability in spectral features is observed. Analysis of additional spectroscopic data collected with a 785 nm excitation wavelength revealed variability in the relative intensity of spectral features. Raman spectroscopy indicates that the sample is primarily NpO₂; however, additional signals indicate possible structural disorder, oxidized species, or potential contributions from other Np phases. To further investigate the possibility of additional phase contributions within the sample of NpO₂, Raman spectroscopic mapping was employed to examine the homogeneity of the sample produced via DD. From this analysis, we determined that despite variability in the intensity of Raman-active vibrational modes, consistent spectra are obtained throughout the area of the sample investigated. SEM images show aggregates with variable sizes and shapes, with rounded, primary particles possessing an average diameter of approximately 100 nm. Comparison of the results of these multimodal analyses to the literature indicates that the crystal chemical, spectroscopic, and microstructural properties of NpO₂ vary based on synthesis method, even if X-ray diffraction data indicate that the bulk phase is NpO₂.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":373,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Nuclear Materials","volume":"623 ","pages":"Article 156460"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146024667","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Interfacial microstructure and adhesion evaluation of pre-oxidized alumina scales on FeCrAl ODS alloy under ion irradiation","authors":"Hao Yu ,&nbsp;Diancheng Geng ,&nbsp;Minha Park ,&nbsp;Yasuyuki Ogino ,&nbsp;Naoko Oono-Hori ,&nbsp;Koji Inoue ,&nbsp;Sosuke Kondo ,&nbsp;Ryuta Kasada ,&nbsp;Shigeharu Ukai","doi":"10.1016/j.jnucmat.2026.156464","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jnucmat.2026.156464","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Zr-added FeCrAl oxide-dispersion-strengthened (ODS) alloys have been developed as promising candidates for accident-tolerant fuel claddings, which can spontaneously form protective alumina scales at elevated temperatures and provide excellent oxidation resistance in harsh nuclear environments. To clarify the effect of irradiation on scale adhesion, alumina scales were pre-formed on FeCrAl ODS alloy via oxidation at 1000 °C and subsequently irradiated with 6.4 MeV Fe³⁺ ions at 500 °C at the Dual-Beam Facility for Energy Science and Technology, Kyoto University. Irradiation-induced segregation of reactive elements (REs), including Zr and Y, together with Ti/TiC precipitation at the grain-boundary triple junctions (GBTJs) of the alumina–alloy interface, was confirmed via scanning transmission electron microscopy. Atom probe tomography analysis further revealed irradiation-induced depletion of Ti, Zr, and Y, accompanied by Si impurity segregation at the oxide/alloy interface. The adhesion strength of the alumina scales before and after irradiation was quantitatively evaluated via micro double-notched shear compression tests, which indicated a slight increase in the interfacial adhesion strength after irradiation. This study suggests that the segregation of Ti/TiC and REs at the interfacial GBTJs under Fe-ion irradiation enhances the anchoring effect and improves the interfacial adhesion strength by promoting mechanical interlocking.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":373,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Nuclear Materials","volume":"623 ","pages":"Article 156464"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146024741","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effects of ZrN coating and heat treatment on U-Mo dispersion fuel systems under irradiation","authors":"Jaewoo Park,&nbsp;Daniele Salvato,&nbsp;Adam B. Robinson,&nbsp;William A. Hanson,&nbsp;Jan-Fong Jue,&nbsp;Tammy L. Trowbridge,&nbsp;Jeffrey J. Giglio","doi":"10.1016/j.jnucmat.2025.156412","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jnucmat.2025.156412","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The stability of U-Mo fuel particles embedded in an Al matrix under irradiation can be enhanced through ZrN coatings and/or heat treatment. The present study investigates the irradiation behavior of fuel plates containing U-Mo fuel particles fabricated under various heat-treatment conditions and ZrN coating thicknesses. Different fission densities were also applied to each fuel plate to evaluate the effects of these variables.</div><div>Results indicate that higher fission densities lead to more grain recrystallization and high burnup structure (HBS) development in the fuel particles. Heat treatment was found to mitigate the accumulation of fission gas bubbles in fuel particles at low fission densities by coarsening their grains. Fuel particles with ZrN coatings of a 1.2 μm thickness or above exhibited reduced formation of U-Mo/Al interaction layers, suggesting the existence of a critical ZrN coating thickness that minimizes the development of these layers.</div><div>Fission gas bubbles were predominantly observed at grain boundaries of U-Mo fuel particles irradiated at low fission densities. Subgrain boundaries, which appeared to originate from the original grain boundaries containing fission gas bubbles or HBSs, were also observed, indicating the early stage of HBS propagation in the fuel particles.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":373,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Nuclear Materials","volume":"622 ","pages":"Article 156412"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145922653","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effect of Mo/Nb addition on recrystallization behavior and high temperature mechanical properties of FeCrAl alloy tubes","authors":"Zhe Liu ,&nbsp;Zhihao Wang ,&nbsp;Ding Zuo ,&nbsp;Wenbo Liu ,&nbsp;Huiqun Liu ,&nbsp;Ruiqian Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.jnucmat.2026.156435","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jnucmat.2026.156435","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The microstructure and high temperature mechanical properties of annealed FeCrAl-Mo/Nb alloy were studied in this paper. The effects of alloying elements Mo and Nb on the microstructure, recrystallization behavior and mechanical properties of FeCrAl alloy were systematically analyzed, and the mechanism was discussed. The results show that the recrystallization behavior of FeCrAl alloy with high Mo content is significantly delayed because more solid solution atoms hinder the dislocation movement. The recrystallization behavior of FeCrAl-2Mo0.65Nb alloy is promoted by the particles stimulated recrystallization nucleation due to the existence of Laves phase at the initial stage of recrystallization. At the later stage of recrystallization, the recrystallized grains of this alloy are not easy to grow due to the pinning effect of Laves phase on the grain boundary, and the average grain size of fully recrystallized grains is small, which is 6.51 μm. The main recrystallization mechanism of FeCrAl alloy is strain induced grain boundary migration nucleation and growth. The addition of Mo and Nb has no obvious effect on the recrystallization texture type of FeCrAl alloy, but it would form different maximum texture strength. And the room temperature hardness of the alloy is improved by solution strengthening and second phase strengthening, respectively. The contribution of Laves phase to the high temperature strength of FeCrAl alloy is limited. The FeCrAl-2Mo0.65Nb alloy with partially recrystallized microstructure shows relatively good strength and ductility at 600 °C. Due to the existence of high-density dislocations and Laves phase, the alloy has relatively large displacement and deceleration creep time at 400 °C.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":373,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Nuclear Materials","volume":"622 ","pages":"Article 156435"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145922718","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Development of a neural network potential for osmium enables irradiation damage simulations","authors":"Yu Wang ,&nbsp;Heng Chen ,&nbsp;Rui Su ,&nbsp;Bin Xu ,&nbsp;Rulong Zhou ,&nbsp;Dongdong Li ,&nbsp;Yu-Wei You ,&nbsp;Pengfei Guan ,&nbsp;Changsong Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.jnucmat.2025.156424","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jnucmat.2025.156424","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This work develops a high-accuracy artificial neural network (ANN) potential for osmium (Os) to enable large-scale irradiation damage simulations in fusion materials. The potential employs spherical harmonic-Chebyshev polynomial descriptors within a Behler-Parrinello neural network architecture, trained on an extensive dataset generated via density functional theory and <em>ab initio</em> molecular dynamics. Comprehensive validations demonstrate excellent agreement with reference calculations and experimental data across multiple properties: lattice constants of diverse crystal structures, elastic constants for hexagonal close-packed Os, dimer interactions, and defect formation energies (vacancies, interstitials, surfaces). The ANN potential accurately reproduces key behaviors under extreme conditions, including melting characteristics, sputtering thresholds, and primary knock-on atom collision cascades. Simulations reveal defect evolution and clustering during radiation events. This transferable potential provides a critical computational tool for investigating Os precipitation effects on tritium retention and irradiation hardening in tungsten-based plasma-facing materials for fusion reactors.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":373,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Nuclear Materials","volume":"622 ","pages":"Article 156424"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145922741","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}