The push towards electric mobility presents carmakers with new challenges, creating a need for innovative materials and comprehensive solutions.

There are constant warnings about the risks of exhausting supply of vital resources, including the impact on our way of life. Professor Animesh Jha, from the Institute for Materials Research at the University of Leeds, UK, examines the sources of rare earth elements and the research driving their use in emerging technologies.

A polymer network using polyaniline could be the solution to enhanced hydrogen storage. Dr K Balasubramanian from the Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT) in Pune, India, explains how this could provide an alternative to traditional energy systems.

Dr Bob Page looks at some of the optimum methods of encapsulation of nuclear waste streams, and the progress being made.

Dr Chris O’Connor, Senior Consultant at GL Noble Denton reports on polyethylene pipe failure in the utilities sector.

Professor Christophe Poinssot from the French Atomic Energy Commission gives his view on the controversial area of whether energy generation should come from sources other than nuclear, in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.

The opportunities for surface and particulate engineering in nuclear power generation were debated at a recent town meeting.

Materials scientists face the challenge of devising a passive waste form for long-term immobilisation and disposal of the UK’s surplus separated plutonium. Daniel Reid and Neil Hyatt from the University of Sheffield, UK, outline the possibilities.

The Swedish KBS-3 model for geological disposal of spent nuclear fuel is explored by Lena Z Evins, from the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company in Stockholm, and Neil Hyatt of The University of Sheffield, UK.

A new use for Beryllium to improve the thermal conductivity of nuclear fuel pellets is being investigated by IBC Advanced Alloys in Vancouver, Canada.