EFRC WastePD (Center for Performance and Design of Nuclear Waste Forms and Containers) is a multi-institute energy frontier research center established by Department of Energy in 2016 with the key mission to understand the fundamental mechanisms of waste form performance and apply that understanding to develop tools for design of waste forms with improved performance. Key performance parameter of nuclear waste forms is degradation by interaction with aqueous environment (corrosion) over long periods of time. The EFRC WastePD is consisted of three thrusts focusing on scientific principles of metal, glass and ceramic degradation. The Ceramic Thrust targets mechanistic understandings of radionuclide incorporation, confinement and transport behavior in bulk crystalline ceramics and across solid-solid and solid-liquid interfaces that can be closely linked with the ceramic waste form degradation and stability under near field conditions. In this talk, I will highlight the accomplishments of the ceramic thrust achieved under the EFRC WastePD on two main projects: (1) the development of an integrated computation and experimental approach in designing waste forms and tailoring performance; and (2) degradation mechanisms of crystalline waste form materials and the prediction of their long term performance. A particular focus is on the interfacial behavior at the solid-liquid (surface alteration and passivation formation), solid-solid (heterogeneous/homogeneous boundaries) interfaces, and effects of secondary phases (amorphous gel and crystalline phases) to elucidate the dominant degradation mechanisms. The progress on the development of advanced materials as potential host phases to immobilize critical radionuclides of halides, fission product and actinides and their impacts on effective waste management will also be discussed.
Jie Lian, PhD, is a Professor of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Nuclear Engineering & Radiological Sciences from University of Michigan in 2003, and his MS and BS degrees in Materials Science & Engineering from Tsinghua University in 1998 and Yanshan University in 1994, respectively. He worked as a postdoc research fellow at University of Michigan from 2003-2004, and became a research faculty (Assistant Research Scientist) from 2005~2008. Lian joined RPI as an assistant professor at Nuclear Engineering program, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2008. He was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2013 and full professor in 2017. Dr. Lian has been working on multidiscipline research areas including fundamental materials behavior under extreme environments, advanced materials and technologies for effective waste management, innovate fuel design for future nuclear systems, materials for alternative energy applications, 2D-based materials such as graphene and metal halide perovskite and their assembly into macroscopic structures for functional applications. He has published 3 book chapters and 270 papers in peer-reviewed journals including articles in high profile journals such as Science, Nature Materials and Nature Nanotechnology, which have been cited for more than 12,000 times with a Scopus H-index of 56. He is a recipient of the Distinguished Scholar Award, Microbeam Analysis Society, 2002, Rackham Pre-doctoral Honor Fellowship by the University of Michigan (2003), Faculty development award, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (2009), National Science Foundation Early Career Award (2012), Research Excellent Award of Rensselaer SOE (2013), TCT fellow, Singapore (2015), James Tien 66 Early Career Award, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (2016) and inaugural Best Paper Award of Journal American Ceramic Society (2018).