Predictive Chemistry Modeling

This is part nine of a nine-part tutorial series exclusively available to 2020 ANS Winter Meeting attendees.

Understanding the physical constraints and behaviors imposed on a uranium system by chemistry is helpful in establishing necessary criticality safety controls for the process. For single batch operations or for processes that involve only a few chemical reactions that occur effectively instantly, end state chemistry is often sufficient for analysis. However, processes like separations involved multiple stages of continuously occurring chemical reactions and mass transfer that evolve over time. In these cases, predictive chemistry simulation can be a powerful tool in understanding the behavior of the system and imposing appropriate criticality safety controls. The presentation will include an overview of separations methods and equipment, introduction to the mathematics of simulating mass transfer, an overview of available computations programs and their capabilities, and an example process analysis of an industrial scale high enriched uranium purification system.

Presenter

Dr. Tracy Stover, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, LLC