Fast reactor thermal hydraulics in the Dutch PIONEER program

Abstract

The multi-year research program carried out by NRG and funded by the Dutch ministry of economic affairs and climate is called ‘Program for Innovation and cOmpetence development for NuclEar infrastructurE and Research’ (PIONEER). The program comprises seven themes, i.e. long term operation, nuclear modelling and simulation, nuclear safety and compliance, fuels & materials, radioactive waste management, radiation protection, and innovative nuclear systems. One of the pillars in the theme of innovative nuclear systems is fast reactor research, particularly in the field of thermal hydraulics. This paper provides an overview of all fast reactor thermal hydraulics activities in the program, covering development and validation of System Thermal Hydraulics (STH) and 3D (engineering as well as high-fidelity) Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) codes and simulation approaches. Applications range from fundamental turbulent heat transport to core, pool and system thermal hydraulics. With the recent improvements in computational infrastructure and power, also further developments of multi-scale and multi-physics computational approaches are being integrated in the PIONEER program. A generic coupling tool ‘myMuscle’ is under development which is introduced in this paper. Recent results and current developments are presented together with an outlook for the results to be expected at the end of the current multi-year program and beyond.