Next-Generation Emerging Nanomaterials: Transforming the Nuclear Fuel Cycle

The rapid expansion of nuclear energy as a low-carbon power source has intensified the need for advanced materials capable of managing the hazardous radionuclides throughout the nuclear fuel cycle. Existing remediation technologies are constrained by limited selectivity, slow interfacial kinetics, secondary waste generation, and poor tolerance to harsh chemical and radiolytic effluents, underscoring a pressing demand for transformative materials for radionuclide remediation. Emerging nanomaterials with unprecedented control over surface chemistry, interfacial coordination, and adsorption energetics are fundamentally reshaping the radionuclide separation science. This review aims to present a mechanism-governed performance of the next-generation nanomaterial systems containing metal-organic frameworks, covalent organic frameworks, carbon-based architectures, nanoscale zero-valent iron, MXenes, etc., highlighting their evolving roles in selective radionuclide remediation and immobilization. Distinct from prior reviews, this work aims to surpass the isolated performance-based comparisons to a meaningful condition-responsive performance-based comparisons by linking the structure-property-function relationships of the materials under realistic conditions. A unified context-aware benchmarking method has also been proposed to critically evaluate the practical deployment ability of the nanomaterial classes in regard to resistance to competing ions, chemical and radiolytic stability, regeneration efficiency, and scalability. Importantly, such a unified evaluation strategy can lead to the design and development of rationally engineered adsorbent systems across nanomaterial classes rather than relying simply on empirical functional optimization. Persistent challenges such as selectivity-capacity trade-offs, long-term structural integrity, and process-level integration are very critical issues with the nanomaterial systems for sustainable nuclear wastewater management, and future research directions are articulated to find solutions to all these issues. The integration of interfacial science with advanced nanomaterials engineering, as proposed in this review, provides a forward-looking roadmap for the development of robust, selective, and scalable nanomaterial systems for radionuclide remediation, positioning them as the propelling factors for transforming the nuclear fuel cycle sustainability.