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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Atomic Canyon partners with INL on AI benchmarks
As interest and investment grows around AI applications in nuclear power plants, there remains a gap in standardized benchmarks that can quantitatively compare and measure the quality and reliability of new products.
Nuclear-tailored AI developer Atomic Canyon is moving to fill that gap by entering into a new strategic partnership with Idaho National Laboratory to develop and release the “first comprehensive benchmark suite for evaluating retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and large language models (LLMs) in nuclear applications.”
Michael J. Gaeta, Frederick R. Best
Nuclear Technology | Volume 103 | Number 1 | July 1993 | Pages 19-33
Technical Paper | Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT93-A34827
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Space nuclear power systems utilize materials and processes that are completely different from terrestrial reactor systems. Therefore, the tools used to analyze ground-based systems are inappropriate for space reactor design and analysis. The purpose of this study was to develop a space reactor transient analysis tool and to apply this tool to scenarios of interest. The scope of the simulation includes the thermal and neutronic behavior of a liquid-metal-cooled fast reactor, the electrical and thermal performance of the thermoelectric generators, the thermal dynamics of heat pipe radiators, and the thermal behavior of the coolant piping between major components. The thermal model of the system is explicitly coupled to a momentum model of the primary and secondary coolant loops. A one-dimensional conduction model is employed in all solid component models. The reactor model includes an expression for energy generation due to fission and decay heat. The thermoelectric heat exchanger model accounts for thermal energy conversion to useful electrical output. The two-node radiator heat pipe model includes normal operation as well as limited heat pipe operation under sonic limit conditions. The reactor, thermoelectric heat exchanger, and heat pipe models are coupled explicitly by the coolant piping thermal model. The computer program is used to simulate a variety of transients including reactor power change, degradation of the radiator, and a temporary open circuit condition on the thermoelectrics.