Symposium on Structural Material Challenges for the Long-Term Operation of Nuclear Power Plants
(In-person only event)
Date: February 4, 2026 - February 5, 2026
Event Location: Atlanta Marriott Marquis, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Organized by: ASTM Committee E10 on Nuclear Technology and Applications
About the Event
The Symposium on Structural Material Challenges for the Long-Term Operation of Nuclear Power Plants will be held February 4, 2026 - February 5, 2026. The symposium is organized by ASTM Committee E10 on Nuclear Technology and Applications , and will be held at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, Atlanta, Georgia, USA in conjunction with the February 2026 standards development meetings of the committee. The language of the symposium will be English.
Objective and Scope
While the operation of currently operating nuclear power plants beyond the term of their initial license has been a topic of discussion as well as practical application for over two decades, recent disturbances to global oil supplies have sparked a renewed interest in this topic. This meeting will provide a forum for an international exchange of ideas concerning new approaches to facilitate nuclear plant license extension. Additionally, modern plants, including small modular reactors, are being designed to operate for increasingly long times. The meeting will also provide a forum for discussion of the optimal use of high fluence data from different sources in predicting vessel embrittlement.
It is anticipated that this symposium will attract a spectrum of attendees including researchers, industry engineers, plant life management executives, and regulators. Discussion among and across these expert groups is needed to create efficient pathways for the extended operation of existing nuclear plants and meeting the design challenges of new reactors.
Topics for this symposium include:
- Reactor pressure vessel: Embrittlement management, surveillance monitoring, extended beltline
- Applicability of current data to the licensing of SMR's and other new design concepts
- The effect of low temperature neutron embrittlement on reactor pressure vessel support structures
- Flux and spectrum effects and their impact on predicting embrittlement for long service lifetimes
- Radiation effects on the fracture toughness of reactor internals, as well as irradiation assisted stress corrosion cracking
- Applicability of ion irradiation and small-scale mechanical testing on irradiation hardening/embrittlement phenomena
- Analytical techniques: Probabilistic methods, machine learning, etc. When are advanced techniques needed vs. situations in which conventional approaches remain satisfactory?
- Codes and Standards: New or modified practices needed for long-term operation
- Regulatory Approaches: Original licensing basis, current best practices, and evolving methods including discussions of if data and knowledge obtained thus far can justifiably reduce regulatory burden moving forward?
Abstract Submission
To participate in the symposium, authors must submit a 250 to 300-word preliminary abstract no later than February 15, 2025. To ensure your abstract was received into the ASTM database, please email symposia@astm.org and let us know that you have submitted an abstract.
The abstract must include a clear definition of the objective and approach of the work discussed, pointing out material that is new, and present sufficient details regarding results. The presentation and manuscript must not be of a commercial nature, nor can it have been previously published. Because a limited number of abstracts will be accepted, be sure that your abstract submission is complete to allow for careful assessment of the paper's suitability for this symposium. The symposium chair(s) will notify you via email by March 21, 2025 of your paper’s acceptability for presentation at the symposium. If the preliminary abstract is accepted, the author will be requested to submit a final abstract a few months before the symposium. The final abstracts will be distributed in a program booklet at the symposium.
Publication Information
Symposium authors are required to submit their papers for ASTM publication in Selected Technical Papers (STP), an online and printed, peer-reviewed publication for the international scientific and engineering community. STP papers should be full-length technical papers of approximately 10,000 words, significantly contribute to the technical literature, and must include a review of past work in the relevant area and present information of current interest or probe new fields. After the final selection of abstracts has been approved, the ASTM Editorial Office will send authors’ instructions via email, but also can be found by clicking here.
Manuscripts to be peer reviewed for the STP are due online no later than October 31, 2025 at the ASTM Editorial Office. The corresponding author (the author who is the main contact with ASTM Headquarters) will receive a copy of his/her paper in portable document format (PDF). All published authors will have the opportunity to purchase reprints of their papers at a nominal cost. Only those papers submitted by the manuscript due date will be included in the STP.
Please note that all submitted papers are subject to peer review by two independent reviewers. The STP will be submitted to the Library of Congress with an ISBN number and will be reviewed for inclusion in the Web of Science Conference Proceedings Citation Index (CPCI) and Google Scholar.
Technical Program
A technical program (presentation times, paper titles, and presenters’ names) will be posted on the ASTM website by October 2025.
Registration
Registration opens approximately 10 weeks before the start of the symposium.
Technical Chair Contact Information
Mark Kirk (Chair)
PEAI
Email: kirk@peaiconsulting.com
Susan Ortner (Co-Chair)
National Nuclear Laboratory
Email: susan.r.ortner@uknnl.com
Caleb Massey (Co-Chair)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Email: masseycp@gmail.com
Inge Uytdenhouwen (Co-Chair)
SKC CEN
Email: inge.uytdenhouwen@sckcen.be
Radim Kopriva (Co-Chair)
UJV Rez
Email: radim.kopriva@ujv.cz
Masato Yamamoto (Co-Chair)
CRIEPI
Email: masatoy@criepi.denken.or.jp
Hotel Information
The event will be held at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis in Atlanta, Georgia. More information on how to make your sleeping room reservation will be posted approximately 12 weeks prior to the start of the event.
Standards Development Meetings
Committee E10 invites you to attend their future standards development meetings. There is no fee to attend these meetings, and membership in ASTM International is not required to attend. For more information about the committee and their future meetings, please visit the Committee E10 Homepage.