The NEA workshop on material qualification and through-life performance for licensing advanced non-water-cooled reactors, held at the US NRC headquarters on 3-5 June 2025
The NEA Working Group on New Technology (WGNT) organised a workshop on 3-5 June 2025 on improving the understanding of technical approaches to the qualification and through-life performance of materials in advanced non-water-cooled reactors and to identify key areas for future work.
The event, hosted by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (US NRC) in Rockville, Maryland, comprised five sessions and brought together approximately 150 participants from 24 countries. Dr Ryann Bass, a Reactor Systems Engineer of the US NRC and the leader of the task group responsible for this effort, led the discussions among a diverse group of regulators and key stakeholders, including subject matter experts from technical support organisations (TSOs) and vendors.
The first and second sessions focused on material qualification and through-life performance, respectively, and were material agnostic. The third, fourth and fifth sessions focused on the unique aspects of material qualification and through-life performance for advanced manufacturing technologies, composites and graphite. The workshop welcomed and encouraged participant engagement through questions and answers during panel discussions and open discussions.
Presentation on an approach for additive manufacturing qualification and through-life performance during the advanced manufacturing technologies session
Panel discussion with questions and answers during the advanced manufacturing technologies session
The workshop touched on several important topics across a variety of materials, such as the interdependence of qualification and through-life performance and ensuring that components are being designed to enable the implementation of through-life performance strategies (e.g. inspection, monitoring and surveillance). One attribute that saw significant discussion during the workshop was the use of standardised testing practices to increase regulator confidence in the data, enable comparisons between data sets and minimise scatter in the data. Environmental testing was identified as an area requiring resources to develop standardised testing practices. Addressing these topics is key to advancing the design, operation and licensing of non-water-cooled reactors.
Looking ahead, the task group will collate papers submitted to the workshop and review information discussed during the workshop to document best practices for regulatory acceptance.
The workshop was organised by the NEA Working Group on New Technologies (WGNT), which provides a forum for regulators and their TSOs to exchange information and experience from licensing and oversight of past and current nuclear facilities, to support the development of a common understanding, as well as to explore opportunities for the harmonisation of licensing standards for new technologies. The NEA will publish the report, including workshop papers, to outline the key takeaways and best practices discussed.
Panel discussion with questions and answers during the session focused on general material qualification
