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Modeling &...
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and to provide the necessary assurance
of fuel integrity over its operating life
considering both normal (operational)
and abnormal conditions.
Fuel behavior models currently
available have limited predictive capacity.
They rely extensively on the results of
fuel property and irradiation tests and
post-irradiation examinations. A large
number of in-pile tests are typically
needed to encompass the fuel operating
conditions of interest, and the duration of
these tests may be several years to reach
the targeted discharge burnup.
The high cost and protracted nature
of these tests create a strong incentive to
develop computational models of fuel
behavior that have greater predictive
capability and are less dependent on
empirical testing. Advancement of such
capabilities is pursued in parallel with
the (reactor) modeling and simulation
efforts described here, with the aim of
appropriately integrating or coordinating
their application in the future.
4. Who are your global partners in this
effort
Argonne is leading a team of U.S.
national laboratories (Idaho, Oak Ridge
and Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratories) and several universities
in the advancement of reactor modeling
and simulation capabilities centered
on the SHARP code and the effective
use of leadership class computers,
including the IBM Blue Gene/P. This
national effort is sponsored by the U.S.
Department of Energy and is carried out
in cooperation with the French Atomic
Energy Commission (CEA) and the
Japanese Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA).
Cooperative activities currently underway
include (a) joint definition of benchmark
problems that can be used to test the
existing and developmental code systems
in each country, (b) joint comparison and
assessment of benchmark results, and
(c) joint assessment and improvement
of enabling software tools, e.g., tools for
geometry description, mesh generation,
data management, solution decomposition
and parallelization and visualization of
results.
5. Please describe your plans with
your current technology for assisting
research, design, and operation of
nuclear power plants in the next fi ve
years
Our current plans are focused on
continued development, testing and
integration of the SHARP code. The
development effort will be guided and
focused by applications supporting the
development of conceptual designs for
advanced reactor systems and confirmation
of their safety. Their main initial use
will be to complement experimental
measurements in the qualification of the
existing analysis tools and to investigate
design options and operating conditions
that cannot be explored reliably with
existing tools.
Although separate- and integraleffects
measurements will continue to
SFR Bundle
be needed for validation of the models
used in reactor design, the advanced
capabilities under development will make
it possible to optimize the experimental
campaigns and to support greater use of
“numerical prototyping” in the design of
reactor components and systems.
6. Please share any other details, which
you may like to bring to the attention
of our readership in the nuclear power
industry.
The code systems in use today for
reactor development and design were
initiated more than thirty years ago and
were designed to accommodate the
computing resources, tools and methods
that were available at the time. We are
targeting a vastly improved capability
that exploits advances in computers and
software tools to facilitate reactor design
optimization, provide increased assurance
of performance and safety characteristics,
and reduce the need for large scale integral
experiments to characterize or validate
performance.
In addition to the improved
ability to predict reactor behavior, we
envision a vastly superior process for
development, design and licensing of
future reactors. This process would
integrate all significant aspects of the
design to influence optimized design
choices at the conceptual stage of the
design. It would also support evolution
from the conceptual stage to the detailed
design of realizable components. Finally,
it would provide for automated transfer
of design specifications to instructions
for manufacture and assembly, enabling
the manufacture of parts and components
to close tolerances and assured fit at the
time of assembly.
7. Do have enough funding to realize
your plans in the next fi ve years
We are grateful for the sponsorship
the U.S. Department of Energy provides
for our effort to advance modeling and
simulation of nuclear reactors, as well as
for the its past and continuing investment
in high-performance computers and
the software needed to make effective
use of these computers. Our progress
on development and application of the
reactor simulation tools, centered on
the SHARP code, obviously depends
on the funding support we receive over
the next five years – not only for code
development but also for application and
validation studies and quality assurance.
We are optimistic about the prospect
for this funding, because the benefit of
this research for advancing the use of
nuclear energy is increasingly recognized
by the technical community and
policymakers. At the same time, we are
extremely interested in partnerships with
commercial organizations that can provide
additional resources for accelerating
our development and validation efforts
and bringing their products to bear on
the commercial design, licensing and
operation of nuclear power plants.
Contact: Hussein S. Khalil, Argonne
National Laboratory, 9700 S. Cass
Avenue, Bldg 208, Argonne, IL 60439;
telephone: (630) 252-1456, fax: (630)
252-4780, email: hkhalil@anl.gov.
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