Wedoany.com Report on Mar 10th, Recently, China General Nuclear Power Research Institute and Beijing University of Science and Technology (hereinafter referred to as "USTB") officially signed a cooperation agreement in Beijing to jointly establish the "Joint R&D Center for Advanced Nuclear Energy Materials of the National Key Laboratory of New Metal Materials" and held a unveiling ceremony.
The establishment of the R&D center is an important achievement of both parties in deepening industry-university-research collaboration and serving the national nuclear energy strategy, and it is also a crucial layout in the high-quality development process of the Research Institute. The R&D center will focus on three key challenges: "extreme environment, ultimate performance, and extreme application." It will concentrate on development directions such as advanced nuclear energy structural materials, nuclear energy functional materials, and nuclear energy preparation and characterization platforms, striving to break through the technical bottlenecks in nuclear energy materials and provide key technological support for the high-quality development of China's nuclear energy industry.
USTB's nuclear materials research is rooted in metal materials. From the "Two Bombs, One Satellite" era's Type B separation membrane and aerospace nuclear steel, to contemporary fourth-generation reactor ODS steel and China's nuclear steel, and further to fusion reactor first walls and tritium breeders, it has formed a complete system covering fission-fusion, structure-function, and service-simulation, making it one of the core R&D forces in China's nuclear materials field.
The National Key Laboratory of New Metal Materials at Beijing University of Science and Technology was approved by the former State Planning Commission and State Education Commission in 1989. It was approved for establishment relying on Beijing University of Science and Technology by the former Ministry of Metallurgical Industry in 1991, officially began operation after passing national acceptance in 1995, passed five rounds of national key laboratory evaluations organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology, and passed the reorganization and acceptance of the national key laboratory organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Education in 2025, being renamed the National Key Laboratory of New Metal Materials.
The laboratory closely focuses on the major challenges of "three extremes" — extreme environment, ultimate performance, and extremely low carbon emissions — posed by major national strategic demands on metal materials. It aims to achieve original innovation in the basic principles, methods, and key technologies of material design, realize the ultimate performance of metal materials such as high strength and toughness, high sensitivity and ultra-precision, and ensure the reliable service of new metal materials under harsh service environments like extreme temperatures and extreme pressures. Simultaneously, it strives to break through key core technologies such as green and low-carbon manufacturing of metal materials, full-life-cycle service safety evaluation, and life prediction. It focuses on solving the "bottleneck" metal material problems that constrain national development and security, develops cutting-edge metal materials with a Chinese label, and provides stronger support for major national strategies and the construction of a technologically powerful nation.
