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Division Spotlight
Robotics & Remote Systems
The Mission of the Robotics and Remote Systems Division is to promote the development and application of immersive simulation, robotics, and remote systems for hazardous environments for the purpose of reducing hazardous exposure to individuals, reducing environmental hazards and reducing the cost of performing work.
Meeting Spotlight
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
ARPA-E announces $40 million to develop transmutation technologies for UNF
The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) announced $40 million in funding to develop cutting-edge technologies to enable the transmutation of used nuclear fuel into less-radioactive substances. According to ARPA-E, the new initiative addresses one of the agency’s core goals as outlined by Congress: to provide transformative solutions to improve the management, cleanup, and disposal of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.
Krishna Podila, Qi Chen, Yanfei Rao
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 193 | Number 12 | December 2019 | Pages 1379-1393
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2019.1627177
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
At present, no clear guidelines exist for modeling non-water-cooled small modular reactors (SMRs) despite the rising need for high-fidelity simulation tools to support regulators and the industry. Most SMR concepts currently under the Canadian prelicensing review adopted non-water-cooled–reactor technologies [molten salt reactor (MSR), gas-cooled reactor, and liquid metal–cooled reactor] that are new for Canada. There is a need for a modeling tool set that is broadly applicable for the assessment of advanced technologies used in SMRs. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) can be used in performance evaluation and safety analysis of non-water-cooled SMRs for modeling three-dimensional (3-D) fluid flow and heat transfer in geometries of arbitrary complexity without resorting to geometry-specific empirical correlations. This study investigates the capabilities of existing models within a commercial CFD code to simulate the flow and heat transfer characteristics in a MSR configuration. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) configuration was simulated in this study using a stand-alone CFD approach, and CFD predictions were assessed with ORNL data. Intricate geometry details within the MSRE core were included in the computational model to study the associated geometric effects. The results obtained in this study showcased the ability of CFD to predict 3-D effects within the computational domain especially at the lower plenums. The predicted trends for the temperature rise in the fuel and moderator within the core were in good agreement with the ORNL data. The results presented in this paper constitute the first step in developing Canadian Nuclear Laboratories’ capability for CFD modeling of non-water SMRs.