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Diversification and the common ground
Craig Piercycpiercy@ans.org
Who would have thought, just a few years ago, that we would see so many long-standing barriers to new nuclear development falling like dominoes? Public opinion, policy, regulatory reform, finance and investment, design maturity, nuclear fuel enrichment, and fuel fabrication capacity have all advanced with remarkable speed in the United States.
Conventional wisdom holds that the most effective way to scale up the nuclear supply chain is to do so strategically, matching investments to the needs of reactor developers.
François Martin, André Bergeron, Guillaume Campioni, Yannick Gorsse, Nathan Greiner, Elsa Merle
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 199 | Number 1 | April 2025 | Pages S994-S1005
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2024.2328964
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The CEA multiphysics tool combining the deterministic neutronics code APOLLO3® and the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) platform TRUST/TrioCFD is used to model the first-ever-built molten salt nuclear reactor, the Aircraft Reactor Experiment (ARE). A neutronics model and a thermal-hydraulic model of the reactor were created and coupled. Steady-state and transient simulations were performed in order to reproduce experiments realized on the ARE. The simulation results and experimental data are compared as a way of validating the multiphysics tool. The nominal state of the ARE is reproduced first; significant discrepancies were observed regarding the liquid sodium flow. Variations of βeff with the fuel flow rate were then studied. While the simulation was in very good agreement with the experimental data for high flow rates, some discrepancies were observed at low and null flow rates. Finally, a transient simulation of a rod withdrawal was reproduced. While the beginning of the transient simulation was in good agreement with the experimental data, oscillations appeared in the second half of the simulation.