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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Deep Space: The new frontier of radiation controls
In commercial nuclear power, there has always been a deliberate tension between the regulator and the utility owner. The regulator fundamentally exists to protect the worker, and the utility, to make a profit. It is a win-win balance.
From the U.S. nuclear industry has emerged a brilliantly successful occupational nuclear safety record—largely the result of an ALARA (as low as reasonably achievable) process that has driven exposure rates down to what only a decade ago would have been considered unthinkable. In the U.S. nuclear industry, the system has accomplished an excellent, nearly seamless process that succeeds to the benefit of both employee and utility owner.
Seongchan Kim, Han Gyu Joo
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 197 | Number 8 | August 2023 | Pages 1564-1583
Technical papers from: PHYSOR 2022 | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2144083
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The capability and performance of the hexagonal version of the nTRACER direct whole-core calculation code are enhanced for VVER applications by extending the geometry-handling features and also by implementing assemblywise parallelization of the planar method of characteristics (MOC) calculation with higher-order scattering. The geometry-handling methods for the VVER hexagonal geometry having various special constituents are presented with detailed illustrations. The assemblywise domain decomposition (ADD) scheme is established under the hexagonal coarse-mesh finite difference formulation, which is exploited to update the incoming angular flux needed for the ADD parallelization. The solution accuracy and parallel performance are assessed for various hexagonal core problems, including the VVER benchmarks. It is shown that the hexagonal geometry solutions of nTRACER match with the reference Monte Carlo solutions within about 50 pcm in reactivity and 1% in pin power distribution and that the hexagonal ADD can reduce the computing time of the planar MOC calculation by up to 53% when compared to the anglewise parallelization.