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November 15–18, 2026
Phoenix, AZ|Arizona Grand Resort & Spa
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Fusion Science and Technology
August 2026
Latest News
Five companies, five bases: The Army’s Janus Program takes shape
Between the Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses and Nuclear Energy Launch Pad programs, August has already been a busy month for federal partnerships with the nuclear industry.
That trend continues: On Wednesday, the Department of the Army announced that it has selected five nuclear reactor developers—Antares Nuclear, BWXT Advanced Technologies, General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems, Radiant Industries, and Westinghouse Government Services—each paired with a different military installation, for its Janus Program.
This week, the nuclear community descended on Dallas, Texas, for the second annual Nuclear Energy Conference and Expo, the premier industry-focused nuclear conference cohosted by the American Nuclear Society and the Nuclear Energy Institute. Among the plenary panelists was Jeff Waksman, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy, and environment. Waksman has been closely involved in the development of the Janus Program, and the morning before the program’s new selections were unveiled, he provided insights on its ultimate goals at NECX 2026.
Huajiang Jin, Shuaishuai Zhang, Jianxiang Zheng, Jian Zhang, Huifang Miao, Liuxuan Cao
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 80 | Number 5 | July 2024 | Pages 682-694
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2023.2232229
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Understanding irradiation-induced degradation processes of nuclear structural materials is essential for creating methodologies and procedures for nuclear reactor safety. Due to the time- and resource-intensive property of both experiments and multiscale simulations of irradiation damage, the trial-and-error approach is completely inefficient. Recently, machine learning techniques have been employed to predict the properties of reduced activation ferritic martensitic (RAFM) steels, such as yield strength and elongation, as well as irradiation embrittlement in steel pressure vessels, with encouraging progress.
In this work, void swelling is predicted using a machine learning method for the first time, taking into account the synergistic effects of displacement damage, helium, and hydrogen. Assisted by the analysis of feature engineering, seven machine learning models are trained and compared by multicriteria evaluation methods. Finally, the parameter-optimized gradient-boosting model is selected as the mapping function with the highest accuracy and universality to predict void swelling. In particular, the dependence of the void swelling and the injection amount of helium and hydrogen in the continuous parameter variation range is predicted beyond the existing experimental data. This work demonstrates the feasibility of machine learning to predict material irradiation damage by synergistic effects and has practical significance in nuclear material optimization and reactor safety.