Development of an efficient and improved core thermal-hydraulics predictive capability for fast reactors: Summary of research and development activities at the North Carolina state University

Abstract

The improved understanding of the safety, technical gaps, and major uncertainties of advanced fast reactors will result in designing their safe and economical operation. This paper focuses on the development of efficient and improved core thermal-hydraulics predictive capabilities for fast reactor modeling and simulation at the North Carolina State University. The described research and development activities include applying results of high-fidelity thermal-hydraulic simulations to inform the improved use of lower-order models within fast-running design and safety analysis tools to predict improved estimates of local safety parameters for efficient evaluation of realistic safety margins for fast reactors. The above-described high-to-low model information improvements are being verified and validated using benchmarks such as the OECD/NRC Liquid Metal Fast Reactor Core Thermal-Hydraulic Benchmark and code-to-code comparisons.