Symposium A, 'Material Challenges in Current and Future Nuclear Technologies', was held at the 2011 MRS Fall Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, November 28–December 2, 2011. The symposium addressed current questions in nuclear materials development, such as the effects of radiation damage on core materials. At the same time, emphasis was placed on research to pre-empt future issues, such as materials with applications in both the proposed GenIV fission designs and fusion reactor cores. There was also linkage between both areas of research, as the requirements for both future fusion and fission reactor technologies are often very similar. The articles in this volume are separated into four broad areas: fuel, radiation effects, corrosion and structural materials. Each of the areas combines both simulation and experimental work, highlighting the cross-linkage between them and how they can be used to holistically develop new materials for nuclear technologies.

Table of Contents:
Part I. Fuels: 1. Effect of Ce4+ and Th4+ ion substitution in uranium dioxide Rakesh K. Behera and Chaitanya S. Deo; 2. Spark plasma sintering of fuel cermets for nuclear reactor applications Yang Zhong, Robert C. O'Brien, Steven D. Howe, Nathan D. Jerred, Kristopher Schwinn, Laura Sudderth and Joshua Hundley; 3. Atomistic simulation of nuclear fuels Matthias Krack; Part II. Radiation Effects: 4. The role of Sn, Zr and Hf in the radiation damage in II, III, IV and V pyrochlores Karl R. Whittle, Massey de los Reyes, Mark G. Blackford, Nestor J. Zaluzec and Gregory R. Lumpkin; 5. Structural features in fluorite compounds relevant for nuclear applications Gianguido Baldinozzi, Lionel Desgranges, David Simeone, Dominique Gosset and Laurence Luneville; 6. Evolution of oxide particles during fabrication processes of 12Cr ODS steel Xiaodong Mao, Tae Kyu Kim, Sung-Soo Kim, Chang Hee Han, Kyu Hwan Oh and Jinsung Jang; 7. Calculation of migration rates of vacancies and divacancies in a-iron using transition path sampling biased with a Lyapunov indicator Massimiliano Picciani, Manuel Athènes and Mihai-Cosmin Marinica; 8. Radiation growth of HCP metals under cascade damage conditions Stanislav I. Golubov, Alexander V. Barashev and Roger E. Stoller; 9. In situ TEM ion irradiation and atmospheric heating of cladding materials K. Hattar, S. Rajasekhara and B. G. Clark; 10. Effects of displacing radiation on graphite observed using in situ transmission electron microscopy J. A. Hinks, A. N. Jones and S. E. Donnelly; 11. Copper (II) phthalocyanine based field effect transistors as total dose sensors for determining ionizing radiation dose Harshil N. Raval and V. Ramgopal Rao; 12. OFET sensors with poly 3-hexylthiophene and pentacene as channel materials for ionizing radiation Harshil N. Raval and V. Ramgopal Rao; Part III. Corrosion: 13. Hydrolysis of hydroxamic acid complexants in the presence of non-oxidizing metal ions Scott Edwards, Fabrice Andrieux, Colin Boxall, Robin Taylor and David Woodhead; 14. Fixed contamination on steel surfaces: first use of quartz crystal microgravimetry to measure oxide growth on process steels under conditions typical of nuclear reprocessing Rebecca C. Woodhouse, Richard J. Wilbraham and Colin Boxall; 15. Mechanisms of oxidation of fuel cladding alloys revealed by high resolution APT, TEM and SIMS analysis Chris R. M. Grovenor, Na Ni, Daniel Hudson, Sean S. Yardley, Katie L. Moore, George D. W. Smith, Sergio Lozano-Perez and John M. Sykes; 16. Free energies and mechanisms of water exchange around Uranyl from first principles molecular dynamics Raymond Atta-Fynn, Eric J. Bylaska and Wibe A. de Jong; 17. Surface decontamination by photocatalysis Richard J. Wilbraham, Colin Boxall and Robin J. Taylor; 18. Investigation of water adsorption on metal oxide surfaces under conditions representative of PuO2 storage containers Patrick Murphy, Colin Boxall and Robin Taylor; 19. Temperature and time-dependent ion diffusion across stainless steel-zirconium film interface studied by scanning surface potential M. E. Hawley, K. J. Hollis and P. O. Dickerson; 20. In situ XANES study of Co2+ Ion adsorption on Fe3O4 nanoparticles in supercritical aqueous fluids Hao Yan, Robert A. Mayanovic, Joseph Demster and Alan J. Anderson; Part IV. Structural Materials: 21. Dislocation density based crystal plasticity finite element simulation of alpha-iron Zhe Leng and David P. Field; 22. Grain boundary analysis of crept alloy 617 Fan Zhang and David P. Field.