Nuclear Materials and Fuel Cycle Center (NMFC)

The Nuclear Materials and Fuel Cycle Center (NMFC) is one of the key research laboratories of the Nuclear Engineering Program at Virginia Tech. The center is led by Dr. Jinsuo Zhang, an professor of the nuclear engineering program. Prof. Zhang joined the university in January, 2017, with the specific task of initiating research and education focusing on nuclear materials and fuel cycle technologies. Before Prof. Zhang joined the universtiy, he had been involved in material degradation studies and coolant technology for nuclear reactor systems and advanced nuclear fuel cycle technologies including pyroprocessing at Los Alamos National Laboratory since 2001.

See the website of the NMFC Laboratory for further information.

Research Topics

  • Materials Compatibility
  • Used Fuel Management and Nuclear Fuel Cycle
  • Nuclear Coolants
  • Fuel Materials

Experimental Facilities

  • Two high temperature/pressure loops
  • One SCC systems
  • Three electrochemical glass cells
  • Two gloveboxes
  • Solubility measurement in Na/Cs
  • Four high/temperature molten salt cells
  • Four potentiostats
  • DSC/TGA for phase diagram
  • Two bulk corrosion tests
  • Three autoclave systems
  • Molten salt loop

Modeling & Simulation

  • Corrosion model development
  • BISON/MOOSE model development
  • ThermoCalc software
  • LAMMPS
  • BISION/MOOSE