December 2016

 

By Leslie Wright
Idaho National Laboratory's National University Consortium provides collaborative opportunities for INL researchers to strengthen their R&D portfolios and strive to meet the nation's strategic nuclear energy objectives by partnering with professors, students and researchers at five universities across the country: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, North Carolina State University, the Ohio State University, Oregon State University and the University of New Mexico. The NUC Annual Review Meeting, held in mid-August in Idaho Falls, provided an opportunity for these academics to meet with each other and INL employees to discuss the current state of NUC projects and plan future collaborations. Several of the 44 NUC interns who had worked at INL over the summer also attended.

Following a full-day tour of INL facilities by students and new members on the desert Site, including the Materials and Fuels Complex, Experimental Breeder Reactor-1 Atomic Museum, and TREAT Transient Test Reactor, participants gathered in a conference room for presentations concerning specific Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) projects with both NUC and INL involvement.

Efficient low-resolution codes for thermal hydraulics

INL's Bob Youngblood spoke on behalf of several North Carolina State University researchers about "Computationally Efficient Prediction of Containment Thermal Hydraulics Using Multi-Scale Simulation." Youngblood explained that by comparing high-resolution simulations to low-resolution simulations and adding corrections to make the low-resolution simulations faithful to reality, his collaboration can use these low-resolution simulations, rather than the more costly and time-consuming high-resolution simulations, by learning how to correct for what is lost by going to low resolution. "Truth is low-resolution code runs plus corrections," he said. The goal is to show that it will be feasible for researchers to machine-learn from a limited number of high-resolution simulations, ultimately saving time and money on future projects. By using this method to model parts of reactors, engineers will be able to more efficiently analyze new types of reactors. Youngblood's collaborators include Nam Dinh, Igor Bolotnov, Han Bao and Botros Hanna, all of North Carolina State.

 

A whole new regime for neutron dosimetry

Joseph Morris, a graduate student from University of New Mexico, spoke about using novel interrogation of optical materials with known effects in the optical material to perform neutron dosimetry. He, along with Sebastien Teysseyre of INL and his mentor Adam Hecht of UNM, have been verifying how nuclear damage changes the optical characteristics of crystals, including the refraction index, using novel measurement methods, and using this data to make predictions about changing nuclear materials. Morris explains that using high-precision dosimetry technology is a nondestructive method that can be used in bulk and will provide an immediate readout. Over the next fiscal year, Morris hopes to collaborate further with INL, in addition to ongoing partnerships with Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico. Hecht, an associate professor of nuclear engineering at UNM, remarked that this research could "open a whole new regime of materials for neutron dosimeters."

 

Extending MOOSE capabilities

Several speakers from the Ohio State University presented on their work involving Multiphysics Object Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) to enhance its capabilities. Rachit Aggarwal described his work, which has included working with a Steam Generator Hardware-in-the-Loop setup and a RAVEN-added network interface. Shanbin Shi and Xiaodong Sun have been working on a Thermal Nonequilibrium Drift Flux Model to provide a complementary tool for ongoing programs, including Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) software RELAP-7. Further research has been done by Sha Xue and Jinsuo Zhang to "extend MOOSE capabilities in the area of corrosion, chemical interactions and accident of LWR fuels." This project is led by Hongbin Zhang at INL in collaboration with Carol Smidts, Xiaodong Sun and Jinsuo Zhang.

 

Predicting radiation-induced microstructural change with MOOSE

Miaomiao Jin, a Ph.D. student at MIT under Dr. Michael Short in collaboration with Cody Permann at INL, discussed modeling longtime evolution of radiation-induced defects with Cluster Dynamics in MOOSE. She demonstrated the implementation of a cluster dynamics framework in MOOSE, adding acceleration techniques, accounting for spatial dependence and linking results to the estimation of macro properties such as hardening and void swelling.

 

Efficient TREAT modeling capabilities with graphite data improvement

This project led by Mark DeHart of INL includes collaborations with NC State, OSU, UNM and MIT. Carl Haugen at MIT, a student of Benoit Forget, studied thermal neutron scattering in modeling the TREAT Reactor System using OpenMC simplifying the computations, eliminating the need for large data tables, and providing an on-the-fly thermal neutron scattering capability that will allow continuous computation of energy, temperature and scattering angle.

 

Toni Alberti at OSU, under advisor Todd Palmer, worked with Mark DeHart and Javi Ortensi of INL to study steady state modeling of the minimum critical core of TREAT to work towards a high fidelity TREAT simulation model. This model will reduce the number of calibration experiments, provide a predictive capability for TREAT and save time and money for the facility and experimenters. 

 

ColbySorrell and Ayman Hawari at North Carolina State collaborated with Mark DeHart and John Bess at INL to look at MCNP modeling of TREAT, focusing on the graphite. Initial experiments show good agreements with the experimental data and preliminary molecular dynamics models representing nuclear graphite as a porous structure have been created.

 

As part of the ATF Fuel Irradiation program, collaborators at the University of New Mexico are developing a pool boiling and flow boiling experimental facility. A variety of instruments are being developed, including a capacitance-based void sensor under development at UNM. The initial development efforts at UNM include measuring void fraction and distinguishing boiling regimes based on measured capacitance in flow-boiling, in-pile water loop fuel testing and flow loop.

 

Nuclear Hybrid Energy Systems

As part of NUC's Nuclear Hybrid Energy Systems Project, led by Shannon Bragg-Sitton at INL, researchers J.M. Doster and S. Terry at North Carolina State are modeling potential electric and thermal energy storage systems integrated with nuclear systems, as well as modeling anticipated transient behavior and response of subsystems.

As part of the same program, Oregon State researcher Q. Wu with student researcher Kyle Hoover performed limited scaling and numerical simulation experiments on MASLWR data to validate RELAP5-3D models and develop a new set of scaling parameters so the RELAP5-3D model can be used for hybrid energy studies. Researchers at the Ohio State University led by Carol Smidts are assessing the aging and degradation of key components on the implementation of online system control. Milestones for year two involve completing the MASLWR RELAP5 models and completing the design of the online monitoring system and distributed test facility application interfaces.

 

Supercritical CO2 corrosion and stress corrosion cracking

An Oregon State student researcher, Lucas Teeter, is examining supercritical CO2 corrosion and stress corrosion cracking of an iron-nickel-chrome alloy under the direction of Julie Tucker at OSU and Sebastien Teysseyre at INL. During the coming year, stress tests will begin in an unpressurized autoclave to get baseline stress material interactions at temperature, and SCC tests will be conducted under stress at environmental conditions.

 

NUC University Reports

Speakers from each university also gave a short review of their school's participation in NUC over the past year.

MIT

Charles Forsberg said MIT spent the past fiscal year providing reactor time for irradiations, as well as participating in research concerning firebrick heated energy storage (FIRES) and MOOSE. MIT collaborated with INL and National Renewable Energy Laboratory on a workshop, and sent several professors and students on trips to help facilitate research goals. Looking forward, Forsberg said MIT plans to turn its focus to hybrid systems where LWRs are integrated with thermal storage systems to provide peak electricity and heat to industry to improve near-term economics, as well as to TREAT reactor modelling.

 

North Carolina State

"This was a good year for NUC at NC State," said Yousry Azmy. An NUC workshop titled "Severe Accidents: Emerging R&D Needs and Approaches," organized by Nam Dinh and Igor Bolotnov, focusing on accident management was held at the university. The event drew 60 participants from Industry, academia, national laboratories, international institutions and regulators. Researchers have been working on two different LDRD projects in conjunction with INL. NC State plans to use its 2017 NUC funding to continue working on these LDRDs, host another workshop and send faculty to INL to continue to expand synergistic activities.

 

The Ohio State University

NUC helps fund six students attending the Ohio State University. Professor Carol Smidts said ongoing research includes studies of online monitoring system design and test facilities for nuclear hybrid energy systems, improving MOOSE/BISON capabilities on interactions between oxide fuel and coolant water, measuring the thermodynamic properties of typical fission products in coolant water, and two other projects. In the upcoming fiscal year, OSU researchers hope to pursue two more LDRDs and participate in joint research with INL in robotics.

 

Oregon State University

Oregon State University NUC participants have been focused on fuel developments, transient testing, and Nuclear Advanced Modeling and Simulations (NEAMS). Projects from the 2015 and 2016 fiscal years are ongoing, and continue to show promise. Wade Marcum said 2017 should bring an expansion of joint appointments, as well as continuation of research concerning metals corrosion and MOOSE modeling. Marcum said he hopes OSU can move beyond nuclear engineering in the near future.

 

University of New Mexico

Adam Hecht said UNM's involvement in NUC has included research into the disposal path of electro-refiner waste and nuclear air-Brayton cycles in addition to the LDRD projects mentioned above, as well as students taking advantage of NUC funding. He is hopeful the coming fiscal year will include additional research on nuclear reactor materials, and should also bring the appointment of two new junior faculty in the nuclear engineering department at UNM.

 

Breakout sessions on new areas of collaboration

Breakout sessions challenged attendees to consider new ideas in areas that included nuclear reactor technologies, nuclear fuels and materials, information, sensors, instrumentation and controls, nuclear applications of robotics, hybrid energy systems, NEAMS-related code development, validation and uncertainty quantification, nuclear waste topics and nuclear non-proliferation and forensics. A session on developing "big ideas" also generated several topics for future consideration.

 

The last word

Marsha Bala, deputy director of the NUC program at INL, said NUC is meant to enable a true partnership between the lab and each of the five universities. INL was pleased to see a large increase in interns from the NUC universities from 27 last year to 44 this year, as well as increased publications: 32 so far in 2016. NEUP funding is also up this past year, as is the number of awards with INL partners. She noted that while collaboration has been fruitful over the past year, she encouraged attendees to continue to work with each other and INL employees, and to conduct and publish even more joint research in the upcoming years. Several follow-on individual breakout workshops are being planned in FY-17.