News archive
November 12, 2019
Valeria Raffuzzi successfully passed the MS exam. The topic of her MS study was "Modelling of batch-wise operation of European Sodium Fast Reactor and Breed&Burn Molten Salt Reactor". The goal of this work was to contribute to model the equilibrium fuel cycle of the two Generation-IV systems mentioned in the title with focus on the development of efficient fast-running tools. The thesis was integrated in the EU ESFR-SMART and SAMOFAR projects. The manuscript is available on-line at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3561314
July 15, 2019
On July 4-5, 2019 there was final meeting of the H2020 project SAMOFAR at the city center of Delft, The Netherlands. The project highlights and summary were presented during the open meeting and presentation are available on the project web page: http://samofar.eu/final-samofar-meeting/ During the final meeting a poster exhibition and competition was organized. The awarded student was Boris Hombourger who was partially involved in the project and which defended his thesis last year at EPFL. The H2020 project SAMOFAR will be followed by H2020 project SAMOSAFER which will start in October 2019.
March 19, 2019
Following the PhD oral exam at EPF Lausanne, Evgeny Nikitin successfully passed also the public defense, the last step of his PhD study. In his PhD thesis entitled "Extension of the nodal code DYN3D to SFR applications" he developed a new thermal-expansion module for the DYN3D nodal diffusion code, established a general methodology for generation of cross sections and verification of the DYN3D solution using the Serpent Monte Carlo code, and validated his developments using selected IAEA benchmark tests on the Phenix end-of-life tests (both steady-state and transient): http://dx.doi.org/10.5075/epfl-thesis-7264.
July 26, 2018
Fanny Vitullo was awarded for the best student paper at the International Conference on Nuclear Engineering ICONE 2018 in London, England (presented poster). The paper was based on the results of her MS thesis entitled: "Statistical burnup distribution of moving pebbles in HTR-PM reactor", which she defended in the frame of the ETHZ/EPFL Master of Science in Nuclear Engineering program in 2017. The students paper competition has a long tradition at ICONE conference, where 50 students from each continent are sponsored to participate on the conference and five best papers are finally selected from each continent.
July 13, 2018
Three new students started their studies at our group in July: Sebastian GAY (BS student) from University of Melbourne working on radiotoxicity analysis for different Molten Salt Reactor fuel cycles; Riccardo COCCI (MS student) from Sapienza University of Rome working on presentation of main concepts and features of the European Sodium Fast Reactor for the general public; and Tuomo KOIVISTO (MS student) from Aalto University, Helsinki, working on assessment of chloride fast Molten Salt Reactor with two or more salts layout within the VSE(PSEL) project.
July 11, 2018
Following the PhD oral exam at EPF Lausanne on May 7, 2018, Boris Aviv Hombourger successfully passed also the public defense, the last step of his PhD study. In his PhD thesis entitled "Conceptual Design of a Sustainable Waste Burning Molten Salt Reactor" he analyzed, vast number of fuel cycle option for MSR, using own developed tool EQL0D.
May 8, 2018
Simone Mambelli successfully passed the MS exam. The topic of his MS study was "Analytical and experimental study of chugging boiling instability: the CHUG project". In this MS thesis the experimental water rig facility "CHUG" was designed and built at EPFL to study the phenomenology of the chugging boiling. The first tests were conducted in which the chugging was demonstrated. The experimental data were compared to the calculational results obtained with the US NRC TRACE thermal-hydraulic code as well as with the PSI-BOIL in-house CFD code.
May 7, 2018
Boris Aviv Homburger successfully passed the PhD oral exam at EPF Lausanne and his public defence, the last step of his PhD study, should follow soon. In his PhD thesis entitled "Conceptual Design of a Sustainable Waste Burning Molten Salt Reactor" he analysed, vast number of fuel cycle option for MSR, using own developed tool EQL0D. These options were either adopted from literature or proposed by B. Homburger himself. As the first author in the world he published the analysis of breed-and-burn cycle in fast MSR and proposed as an alternative the long deep burnup cycles. His thesis documents thousands of evaluated cases in several areas ranging from thermal MSR up to fast breed-and-burn MSR. It has a potential to become a handbook for MSR fuel cycle designers. It was nominated for the Physics Doctoral Thesis Award at EPFL.
January 3, 2018
Vaclav SISL, MS student from Czech Technical University in Prague, joins us for five-month internship to assess various options for transition from existing uranium-plutonium or U-235 based fuel cycles to the thorium-uranium fuel cycle in High Temperature Graphite Reactor and Molten Salt Reactor.
December 18, 2017
Five people from the group attended the three-day LabVIEW Core 1 courses given by National Instruments Switzerland GmbH. LabVIEW is a platform and development environment for a visual programming language widely used for controlling the data acquisition systems.
November 1, 2017
Janos Bodi was accepted by the EPFL Doctoral School in Energy as PhD student and started his PhD thesis at PSI on safety measures assessment of the European Sodium Fast Reactor in frame of the Horizon-2020 ESFR-SMART project.
October 27, 2017
The Expert and Policy Group meetings of the Generation-IV International Forum (GIF) were held on October 16-20, 2017 in Cape Town, South Africa. We represented Switzerland as well as Educational and Training Task Force.
October 23, 2017
Simone Mambelli started his MS thesis at PSI on experimental and analytical study of chugging boiling regime in frame of the Horizon-2020 ESFR-SMART project.
September 25, 2017
Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) in Lugano supported our proposal for a Production Project entitled "Generation-IV European Sodium Fast Reactor: computation of the core parameters using a high-fidelity Monte Carlo code" with an allocation of 100'000 node hours over 1 year on the Cray XC40 – Manycore and 1 TB disk space. The allocation is available from October 1st, 2017 until September 30th, 2018 and will be used in frame of the Horizon-2020 ESFR-SMART project.
September 16, 2017
The Horizon-2020 ESFR-SMART project (European Sodium Fast Reactor Safety Measures Assessment and Research Tools) officially started on September 1, 2017 and ten days later 45 partners representing 19 organizations met on the European Commission premises in Brussels to kick the project off. During two days the 12 work packages of the project were presented and discussed with the focus on the first steps to make a successful start.
August 15, 2017
The August issue of Nuclear Engineering and Design publishes a paper "System codes benchmarking on a low sodium void effect SFR heterogeneous core under ULOF conditions" by E. Bubelis, A. Tosello,W. Pfrang, M. Schikorr, K. Mikityuk, A.-L. Panadero, S. Martorell, J. Ordonez, A. Seubert, G. Lerchl, M. Stempniewicz, F. Alcaro, E. De Geus, T. Delmaere, S. Poumerouly, J. Wallenius, to which we contributed in frame of the FP7 ESNII Plus project. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2017.06.015
August 13, 2017
Emeline Beltjens successfully passed the MS exam. The topic of her MS study was "Modelling of the low-void SFR core during ULOF with spatial kinetics". Unprotected Loss Of Flow (ULOF) transient in the low-void Sodium Fast Reactor (SFR) core was simulated, using the TRACE thermal-hydraulic system code coupled to the PARCS 3D nodal diffusion reactor kinetics solver. The new method of the one-group cross sections preparation using the Serpent 2 Monte-Carlo code was developed and successfully applied. One of the conclusions made in the study says that for ULOF in low-void core, 0D and 3D reactor kinetic models provide conservative and best-estimate predictions, respectively.
August 5, 2017
IAEA TECDOC-1819 on Coordinated Research Project "Benchmark Analysis of EBR-II Shutdown Heat Removal Tests" has been published online: http://www-pub.iaea.org/books/IAEABooks/12247/Benchmark-Analysis-of-EBR-II-Shutdown-Heat-Removal-Tests. The Fast Reactors Group has contributed with static and transient analysis using Serpent 2 and TRACE codes, respectively.
June 30, 2017
This year FR17 International Conference on Fast Reactors and Related Fuel Cycles: "Next Generation Nuclear Systems for Sustainable, Development" was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia on June 26-29, 2017. The Fast Reactors Group actively participated in this important event contributing as first authors or as co-authors to 12 papers presented at the conference as well as to panel discussions on Small and Medium Sized Fast Reactors. One of the five young nuclear scientists awarded at the conference in frame of the Young Innovator Challenge competition was E. Pettersen who did his master thesis at the Fast Reactors Group.
June 12, 2017
Janos Bodi, student from University of Birmingham, UK, joined the Fast Reactors Group to make his master thesis on "Development of the CAD models for the European Sodium Fast Reactor". The drawings will be used in the Horizon-2020 ESFR-SMART project for visualization of the concepts and consistent development of the input models for different codes.
May 10, 2017
At the end of January 2017 PSI hosted for the first time the meeting of GIF Molten Salt Reactor project and organized on this occasion the MSR workshop. More than 100 participants from 18 counties were listening, in the PSI auditorium, to the presentation of 7 major national projects of the GIF MSR project members and observers. The presentations are available at the GIF workshop website: https://www.gen-4.org/gif/jcms/c_82829/workshops
April 30, 2017
The Expert and Policy Group meetings of the Generation-IV International Forum (GIF) were held on April 10-14, 2017 in Paris, France at the OECD Conference Centre. We represented Switzerland at these meetings.
April 6, 2017
The 2017 August issue of Annals of Nuclear Energy publishes a paper "Comparison of progressive incremental adjustment sequences for cross-section and variance/covariance data adjustment by analyzing fast-spectrum systems" by S. Pelloni. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2017.03.040
February 16, 2017
The EU Horizon-2020 program granted 5 million Euros to the research and innovation project coordinated by Dr. Konstantin MIKITYUK, Fast Reactors Group Leader at LRS/NES/PSI. With 19 partners and the total budget of about 10 million Euros, the ESFR-SMART project aims at enhancing further the SFR safety and, in particular, of the commercial-size European Sodium Fast Reactor developed in frame of the Generation-IV International Forum. During four years the project will produce new experimental data; test and qualify new instrumentations; perform further validation of the computational tools; select and assess new safety measures for each defence-in-depth level; strengthen and link together the networks of the European sodium facilities and of the students working on SFR technologies.
February 1, 2017
One PhD student and two MS students started at the Fast Reactors Group in February 2017. Rodrigo GONZALEZ GONZAGA DE OLIVEIRA started his PhD study on modeling of molten salt fast reactor with GeN-Foam in cooperation with Dr. C. Fiorina from EPFL. Fanny VITULLO started her MS study on impact of pebble movement on the fuel burnup in High Temperature Reactor in cooperation with Dr. J. Kalilainen (LTH) and Emeline BELTJENS started her MS study on neutronic and thermal-hydraulic analysis of the low-void SFR core using the Serpent and TRACE/PARCS codes in frame of the CEA-PSI bilateral cooperation ARDECo.
December 20, 2016
Three students from the MS Nuclear Engineering Program has successfully completed their semester projects at the Fast Reactor group: Simone MAMBELLI on designing of the water test facility to mock up sodium boiling using TRACE; Ahmed SHAMA on modeling of the SFR wrapper tube mechanical response to a sodium pressure pulse using CAST3M; and Emeline BELTJENS on first assessments of new safety measures for the European Sodium Fast Reactor core using Serpent.
November 13, 2016
In November 2015 Switzerland joined the GIF MSR activities and the upcoming 23rd GIF MSR pSSC meeting will be hosted by Paul Scherrer Institute, the Swiss implementing agent. At this occasion an MSR workshop dedicated to the national projects of the GIF MSR partners will be held. It will include the country programs of China, EU,
France, Russia, USA, and the motivation and foreseen project of Australia and Switzerland. Molten Salt Reactor Workshop at PSI :: PSI Auditorium :: 24. January 2017 :: afternoon Download the flyer
October 9, 2016
On October 4, 2016, the proposal for the project called "European Sodium Fast Reactor Safety Measures Assessment and Research Tools (ESFR-SMART)" was submitted in response to NFRP2 "Research on safety of fast neutron Generation-IV reactors" of Euratom Work Program 2016-2017. The consortium of the proposed project includes 19 partners from 8 countries. The project is coordinated by Dr. K. Mikityuk (PSI). The first three pages of the proposal (list of participants, table of content and abstract): download.
October 7, 2016
On September 16 Eirik Pettersen from Université Paris-Saclay successfully passed the MS exam. The topic of his MS study which he did at the FAST group was "Coupled multi-physics simulations of the Molten Salt Fast Reactor using coarse-mesh thermal-hydraulics and spatial neutronics". A coupled tool consisting of the 2D/3D coarse-mesh, thermal-hydraulics system code TRACE and the 3D neutron diffusion solver PARCS was used to compute dynamic behaviour of the MSFR, featuring large open volume through which the molten salt circulates. The coarse-mesh TRACE solution was compared to the CFD solution and the conclusion was made on the TRACE applicability to the MSFR analysis.
September 20, 2016
On September 14, 2016 the NES colloquium "Molten Salt Reactor: sustainable and safe reactor for the future?" was given by Dr. Jiri Krepel. The colloquium offered a brief history of the Molten Salt Reactor, addressed its advantages, disadvantages and open issues, and presented the related international research and activities at PSI. Specific attention was brought to the inter-laboratory effort initiated within the Nuclear Energy and Safety Division during the past two years. The slides are available for download (4MB).
September 3, 2016
On August 30 Jiadong Bao successfully passed the MS exam. The topic of his MS study was "Development of the model for the multiphysics analysis of Molten Salt Reactor Experiment using GeN-Foam code". The experiment, completed 50 years ago, was partly re-analyzed with the open source multi-physics code to improve our understanding of the liquid-fuel reactor physics and to validate the computational tools to be used in design and safety demonstration of the future MSRs.
August 4, 2016
The 2016 October issue of Annals of Nuclear Energy publishes a paper "Development and verification of the neutron diffusion solver for the GeN-Foam multi-physics platform" by C. Fiorina, N. Kerkar, K. Mikityuk, P. Rubiolo and A. Pautz. We contributed to the part devoted to the European Sodium Fast Reactor calculations. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2016.05.023
July 2, 2016
The August issue of Nuclear Engineering and Design publishes a paper "Analysis of effects of pellet-cladding bonding on trapping of the released fission gases in high burnup KKL BWR fuels" by V. Brankov, G. Khvostov, K. Mikityuk, A. Pautz, R. Restani, S. Abolhassani, G. Ledergerber, W. Wiesenack, to which we contributed in frame of the cooperation with the Fuel Modeling Group of our lab. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2016.06.021
June 26, 2016
The just-published Generation IV International Forum Annual Report highlights the main achievements of the Forum in 2015. In particular, FAST contributed to the Task Force on Education and Training. https://www.gen-4.org/gif/jcms/c_82870/gif-2015-annual-report-final-e-book
June 10, 2016
On May 9, 2016, the eighth NES PhD Day was held at PSI. Anne-Laurene Panadero, FAST PhD student, won the price in the category "The second-year PhD". The title of her presentation was "The Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor ASTRID under Unprotected Loss of Flow Accident: A new phenomenology?"
May 8, 2016
On April 6, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne granted Dr. Konstantin Mikityuk the title Maître d'enseignement et de recherche (MER), which, in particular, allows him to be the PhD thesis director.
May 8, 2016
The Expert and Policy Group meetings of the Generation-IV International Forum (GIF) were held on April 25-28, 2016 in Paris, France at the OECD Conference Centre. We represented Switzerland at these meetings. The GIF Policy Group members unanimously voted to accept Australia’s bid to join the GIF and thus become the 14th member of the forum.
March 25, 2016
This year we host one internship and three MS students. They are from France, South Korea, Poland and Norway. Their topics span from sodium boiling simulation to re-analysis of the molten-salt reactor experiment.
February 25, 2016
The course 151-0166-00L Special Topics in Reactor Physics started at ETH Zurich on February 24, 2016 for the MS students of the Nuclear Engineering Program. Two lecturers and two instructors are from our group.
February 19, 2016
The April issue of Nuclear Engineering and Design publishes a paper "Characterization of the relocated and dispersed fuel in the Halden reactor project LOCA tests based on gamma scan data" by V. Brankov, G. Khvostov, K. Mikityuk, A. Pautz, W. Wiesenack, to which we contributed in frame of the cooperation with the Fuel Modeling Group of our lab. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2015.11.023
February 13, 2016
Job opportunity at the Fast Reactors Group: we are looking for a Postdoctoral Fellow to work on static and transient analysis of the Generation IV sodium-cooled fast reactor. More details at https://www.psi.ch/pa/stellenangebote/1234
January 6, 2016
The March issue of Progress in Nuclear Energy publishes the second part of the paper on "The effectiveness of full actinide recycle as a nuclear waste management strategy when implemented over a limited timeframe -- Part II: Thorium fuel cycle" by B. A. Lindley (University of Cambridge), C. Fiorina (PSI), R. Gregg (NNL), F. Franceschini (Westinghouse), G. T. Parks (University of Cambridge), to which we contributed with the SFR analysis: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pnucene.2014.11.016. The first paper was devoted to the uranium fuel cycle: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pnucene.2015.07.020.
December 08, 2015
By signing the Memorandum of Understanding on November 20, 2015, Switzerland entered the Generation-IV International Forum Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) Project, joining Euratom (represented by JRC), France (represented by CEA) and Russia (represented by ROSATOM) in their collaborative efforts to develop this Generation-IV system. Switzerland will be represented by Paul Scherrer Institut and, in particular, by our group. http://www.oecd-nea.org/general/mnb/2015/december.html#4
December 08, 2015
This year the TopFuel conference on Reactor Fuel Performance was held in Zurich, Switzerland on September 13-17, 2015. The proceeding are available for download at http://www.euronuclear.org/events/topfuel/topfuel2015/transactions.htm. We contributed to two papers presented at the conference: one on fission gas trapping in the BWR fuel (A0038) and second on calculational benchmark of the sodium-cooled fast reactor fuel behaviour (A0042).
November 11, 2015
The 2016 January issue of Annals of Nuclear Energy publishes a paper "Static and transient analysis of a medium-sized sodium cooled fast reactor loaded with oxide, nitride, carbide and metallic fuels" by Y. Zhang and K. Mikityuk. We performed a preliminary safety analysis of the BN600 type sodium cooled fast reactor loaded with different types of fuels with the TRACE code, by using the safety related parameters obtained from the Serpent calculations. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2015.03.025
November 18, 2015
Jeremie Nebes successfully passed the MS exam. The topic of his MS study was "CFD simulations of sodium two-phase flows". The main goal was to evaluate the feasibility and main issues of Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations of sodium boiling in the fuel rod bundle. The work was performed in the framework of the sodium-cooled fast reactor project ASTRID in cooperation with Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA), France.
November 12, 2015
Anne-Laurene Panadero who is doing her PhD study on modeling of the ASTRID sodium cooled fast reactor behavior in Unprotected Loss of Flow accident successfully passed the candidacy exam at EPFL.
November 4, 2015
Euratom Work Program 2016-2017 is oficially published. One action directly relates to our activities, namely, NFRP 2: Research on safety of fast neutron Generation-IV reactors. This action is aimed at development of the technical assessment of safety improvements of critical fast neutron Generation-IV systems and their supporting reactor islands, as identified by ESNII in the SET Plan Integrated Roadmap.
November 4, 2015
The Expert and Policy Group meetings of the Generation-IV International Forum (GIF) were held on October 26-30, 2015 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. We represented Switzerland at the Expert Group meeting and, in particular, presented the GIF Education and Training Task Force (see the LinkedIn group for more details).
October 7, 2015
The December issue of Nuclear Engineering and Design publishes a paper "GeN-Foam: a novel OpenFOAM(R) based multi-physics solver for 2D/3D transient analysis of nuclear reactors" by C. Fiorina, I. Clifford, M. Aufiero, K. Mikityuk, which summarizes our 2-year efforts on launching a new open-source computational engine for nuclear reactor analysis. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2015.05.035
October 6, 2015
SAMOFAR -- Safety Assessment of the Molten Salt Fast Reactor – is a 5M€ 4-year project of the European Union research program Horizon 2020. The project consortium consists of 11 partners (CNRS, JRC, CIRTEN, IRSN, CINVESTAV, AREVA, CEA, EDF, PSI, KIT and TU Delft). The grand objective of SAMOFAR is to prove the innovative safety concepts of the Molten Salt Fast Reactor (MSFR) by advanced experimental and numerical techniques, to deliver a breakthrough in nuclear safety and optimal waste management, and to create a consortium of stakeholders to demonstrate the MSFR beyond SAMOFAR. At the end of August 2015 the kick-off meeting of the SAMOFAR project took place at Delft University of Technology with over 35 enthusiastic participants.
September 4, 2015
On 27 August 2015, Switzerland signed the Framework Agreement for International Collaboration on Research and Development of Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems, which was extended in February 2015 for ten years, paving the way for continued collaboration among participating countries in this important area of Gen IV R&D. A signing ceremony was held at the OECD in the presence of Mr Mauro Dell'Ambrogio, Swiss State Secretary for Education, Research and Innovation, and Mr William D. Magwood, IV, NEA Director General. http://www.oecd-nea.org/general/mnb/2015/august-september.html
September 2, 2015
The November issue of Annals of Nuclear Energy publishes a paper "On the use of the SPH method in nodal diffusion analyses of SFR cores" by E. Nikitin, E. Fridman, and K. Mikityuk, to which we contributed with PARCS calculations. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2015.06.007
August 26, 2015
Hyemin Kim successfully passed the MS exam. The topic of her MS study was "Static and transient analysis of Molten Salt Reactor Experiment using SERPENT-2/TRACE/PARCS codes". The experiment, completed 50 years ago, was partly re-analyzed with the modern codes to improve our understanding of the liquid-fuel reactor physics and to validate the computational tools to be used in design and safety demonstration of the future MSRs.
August 26, 2015
Jongsoo Choe successfully passed the MS exam. The topic of his MS study was "Empirical Decay Heat Correlations and Fission Products Behavior in MSRs". Molten Salt Reactors were simulated using Serpent and EQL0D to correlate decay heat power not only with reactor operation time and time after reactor shut-down, but also with efficiency of the on-line fission gas removal system. The results were compared with MSBR simulations from ORNL reports.
August 26, 2015
Benoit Soubelet successfully passed the MS exam. The topic of his MS study was "Time efficient fluid dynamics analysis of sodium fast reactor wire wrapped rod bundles". OpenFOAM, an open-source 3D CFD code, was applied for modeling of single and two-phase (air-water) flow in a hexagonal wire-wrapped bundle. The obtained results were benchmarked with respect to TRACE, a state-of-the-art 1D thermal-hydraulics code.
August 20, 2015
The November issue of Progress in Nuclear Energy publishes the first part of the paper on "The effectiveness of full actinide recycle as a nuclear waste management strategy when implemented over a limited timeframe -- Part I: Uranium fuel cycle" by B. A. Lindley (University of Cambridge), C. Fiorina (PSI), R. Gregg (NNL), F. Franceschini (Westinghouse), G. T. Parks (University of Cambridge), to which we contributed with the SFR analysis. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pnucene.2015.07.020
August 4, 2015
Anne-Laurene Panadero, PhD student from our groop, took part in the MeV summer school hold at Argonne National Laboratory on July 21-30, 2015. She was in Team 4 which won the prize for the best team report on "Future experimentation".
June 11, 2015
The November issue of Annals of Nuclear Energy publishes a paper on "A collision history-based approach to sensitivity/perturbation calculations in the continuous energy Monte Carlo code SERPENT" by M. Aufiero, A. Bidaud, M. Hursin, J. Leppänen, G. Palmiotti, S. Pelloni, P. Rubiolo, to which we contributed with ERANOS calculations. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2015.05.008
June 8, 2015
The Expert and Policy Group meetings of the Generation-IV International Forum (GIF) as well as the third GIF Symposium were held on May 18-22, 2015 in Paris, France at the OECD Conference Centre. We represented Switzerland at these meetings.
June 8, 2015
The August issue of Progress in Nuclear Energy publishes a paper on "Core neutronics characterization of the GFR2400 Gas Cooled Fast Reactor" by Z. Perko, S. Pelloni, K. Mikityuk, J. Krepel, M. Szieberth, G. Girardin, B. Vrban, J. Lüley, S. Cerba, M. Halasz, S. Feher, T. Reiss, J. L. Kloosterman, R. Stainsby, C. Poette, summarizing main results of the neutronic study performed in frame of the FP7 EURATOM GoFastR project. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pnucene.2014.09.016
May 21, 2014
ICAPP15: International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants "Nuclear Innovations for a Low-carbon Future" took place on May 3-6, 2015 in Nice, France. We contributed to 9 papers presented at the conference, 6 of them related to Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor and 3 -- to Molten Salt Reactor.
April 1, 2015
The August issue of Progress in Nuclear Energy publishes a paper on "A Geometric Multiscale modelling approach to the analysis of MSR plant dynamics" by Matteo Zanetti,
Antonio Cammi, Carlo Fiorina, and Lelio Luzzi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pnucene.2015.02.014
March 12, 2015
The four-year project "A Paradigm Shift in Reactor Safety with the Molten Salt Fast Reactor" (SAMOFAR) with 11 international partners including PSI was submitted in response to the first call for proposal of the Horizon 2020 program. The proposal was highly evaluated and granted by Euratom. The Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation is co-financing the participation of PSI. The FAST group contributes with the neutronics and transient analysis.
March 12, 2015
The very first issue of the ASME's Journal of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science publishes "Parametric Lattice Study of a Graphite-Moderated Molten Salt Reactor" by Boris Hombourger, Jiri Krepel, Konstantin Mikityuk and Andreas Pautz. The paper summarizes selected first results of the PhD study on small modular molten-salt reactor: http://dx.doi.org/10.1115/1.4026401
February 25, 2015
Matteo Zanetti, PhD student from Politecnico di Milano joins us for three-month internship to complete the work on development and implementation of the delayed neutron precursors transport in a molten salt reactor. This is the second attachment of Matteo to our group, the first one was in 2013.
February 23, 2015
Alzbeta Bednarova, MS student from Czech Technical University in Prague, joins us for six months to make her master thesis on modeling of Superphenix fast reactor core using the FAST code system. The study is supported by the PSI grant for the summer student.
December 1, 2014
Evzen Losa, PhD student from Czech Technical University in Prague, joins us for nine months to work on 3D modeling of closed equilibrium fuel cycle in advanced fast reactors as well as in VVER, using our calculational tools. The study is supported by the IAEA Fellowship. This is already the second attachment of Evzen, the first one was in 2012.
November 24, 2014
Thanks to Chinese colleagues who attached audio to their paper on sodium boiling tests published in Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.expthermflusci.2014.09.016) we can listen to the sound of the sodium boiling: audio(mp3).
November 12, 2014
Boris Hombourger making his PhD study on designing a small modular molten salt reactor successfully passed the candidacy exam at EPFL.
October 15, 2014
Four students from a joint ETHZ-EPFL MS program in Nuclear Engineering (http://www.master-nuclear.ch) joined our group to make their semester projects (and following up MS theses next semester). Two of them will work on topics related to sodium boiling and other two -- on neutronics and transient behaviour of molten-salt reactor.
October 8, 2014
An international conference on reactor physics PHYSOR 2014 was held this year in Kyoto, Japan. We presented in Kyoto two papers: one (done in cooperation with POLIMI, Italy) on hybrid (i.e. thermal-fast) molten salt reactor and another one on how we calculate coolant void worth in sodium fast reactor core. We also contributed to the POLIMI paper on modeling of the molten salt reactor experiment dynamics and to the IAEA paper on the results of the neutronic benchmark based on the end-of-life experiments at the Phenix sodium-cooled fast reactor.
October 2, 2014
On October 1, 2014 Anne-Laurene Panadero officially started in our group her PhD study in frame of our cooperation with Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA) on safety assessment of ASTRID sodium-cooled fast reactor considered for construction in France.
September 29, 2014
October 2014 issue of Nuclear Engineering and Design publishes "The core design of ALFRED, a demonstrator for the European lead-cooled reactors". The paper summarizes selected results of the FP7 EURATOM LEADER project. We contributed to the paper with the core thermal-hydraulic analysis: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2014.07.032
September 28, 2014
The FAST highlight of September 2014 is an updated diagram of our code system which includes now various options of using the new OpenFOAM solver for static and transient analysis of fast reactors: PDF (74k).
September 27, 2014
The OpenFOAM Nuclear Simulations Special Interest Group was initiated at the Ninth OpenFOAM Workshop in Zagreb, Croatia in June this year. The group is open for everybody who uses OpenFOAM for nuclear reactor applications and is interested to benefit from cooperation with other users: http://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/Sig_Nuclear.
September 24, 2014
We applied to the EC co-financed fellowship programme at PSI (PSI-FELLOW/COFUND) with a proposal for a two-year postdoc study on "New methods for analysis of thermal-mechanical transient effects in Generation-IV fast reactors". The goal is to contribute to the development of a new-generation of numerical solvers for accurate prediction of the transient behaviour of reactors with complex geometries and to apply these solvers for the Generation-IV Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor to assess its safety and probably improve its design. Our candidate has been interviewed by the PSI jury and the decision will be known by the end of October 2014.
September 23, 2014
We submitted to Swiss National Science Foundation an application titled "Multiscale modeling of forced evaporation and condensation of low-Prandtl-number fluids". The proposal was prepared together with Laboratory for Thermal Hydraulics of our division and aims at two PhD studies focusing on modeling of sodium boiling at different scales: from microregion to the whole sodium-cooled fast reactor.
September 20, 2014
January 2015 issue of Annals of Nuclear Energy publishes "Solution of the OECD/NEA neutronic SFR benchmark with Serpent-DYN3D and Serpent-PARCS code systems" by E. Nikitin, E. Fridman and K. Mikityuk. The paper reports how the group constants generated by Serpent can be employed by DYN3D and PARCS nodal diffusion codes in 3D full core calculations for sodium-cooled fast reactor. The study was done at HZDR and our contribution was the PARCS solution. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2014.08.054
September 17, 2014
Today is the deadline for submittal of applications to the Horizon 2020 Framework Euratom Program. We contributed to preparation of four proposals: 1) a paradigm shift in nuclear reactor safety with the molten salt fast reactor (SAMOFAR); 2) thermal-hydraulics simulations and experiments for the safety assessment of metal-cooled reactors (SESAME); 3) autonomous reactivity control for enhanced fast reactor safety (ARC); 4) excellence of European capacity in fast nuclear systems (EXPECTANCY).
September 15, 2014
ICAPP15: International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants "Nuclear Innovations for a Low-carbon Future" will take place on May 3-6, 2015 in Nice, French Riviera. Track 3 of the congress is devoted to fast neutron and other innovative reactors. The call for papers is published at http://icapp.ans.org/icapp15/. A 500-word abstract is due by September 30, 2014. We plan to submit 4-5 abstracts.
September 13, 2014
November 2014 issue of Nuclear Engineering and Design publishes "Code assessment and modelling for Design Basis Accident analysis ofthe European Sodium Fast Reactor design. Part II: Optimised core and representative transients analysis". The paper summarizes main results of the benchmark exersise to which we contributed in frame of the FP7 EURATOM CP-ESFR project. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2014.02.029
September 12, 2014
Valerio Ariu successfully passed the MS exam. The topic of his MS study was "Heat exchanger analysis for innovative molten salt fast reactor".
September 12, 2014
On September 9 and 10 we hosted the meeting to discuss the progress of WP6 "Core safety" after the first year of the FP7 EURATOM ESNII+ project (Preparing ESNII for HORIZON 2020). 28 participants from 16 European organizations joined at Paul Scherrer Institute to discuss the status and coordination of work on neutronics and transient analysis of the ESNII fast-spectrum nuclear reactors: ASTRID (sodium), ALFRED (lead) and ALLEGRO (helium).
September 4, 2014
To discuss cooperation in molten-salt reactor research we visited the LPSC lab in Grenoble and in particular the Forced Fluoride Flow Experimental loop at which the gas injection to and separation from the forced flow of the fluoride salt (LiF-NaF-KF) were demonstrated: http://lpsc.in2p3.fr/index.php/fr/component/content/article/38-activites-scientifiques/physique-des-reacteurs-nucleaires/601-fffer.
September 3, 2014
The engineering design for the BREST-300 lead-cooled fast reactor is completed by the Dollezhal Scientific Research and Design Institute of Energy Technologies (Russia): http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/NN-Design-completed-for-prototype-fast-reactor-0209147.html.
August 30, 2014
The FAST highlight of August 2014 illustrates the status of our work on development of new solvers for steady-state and dynamic analysis of nuclear reactors using Open-source Field Operation And Manipulation (OpenFOAM) C++ libraries: PDF (500k).
August 27, 2014
In this video Dr. Leslie Dewan, CEO Transatomic Power http://transatomicpower.com, tells about a concept of molten-salt reactor as an LWR waste burner: http://youtu.be/Q6K1_aQui-A
August 21, 2014
Anna-Laurene Panadero successfully passed the MS exam. The topic of her MS study was "Static neutronic, thermal-hydraulic and fuel performance analysis of the ASTRID Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor core".
August 18, 2014
The information about our PhD project "Small modular Molten Salt Fast Reactor design for closed fuel cycle", including the abstract, is published in the P3 research database of the Swiss National Science Foundation: http://p3.snf.ch/project-152612
August 6, 2014
The paper "Thorium breeder and burner fuel cycles in reduced-moderation LWRs compared to fast reactors" by B. A. Lindley, C. Fiorina, F. Franceschini, E. J. Lahoda, and G.T. Parks, reporting results of the study done in cooperation with University of Cambridge (UK) and Westinghouse (USA), has been published in Progress in Nuclear Energy 77 (2014) 107-123 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pnucene.2014.06.010
August 4, 2014
In this video Prof. Janne Wallenius, CEO LeadCold http://leadcold.com, tells about small modular lead-cooled fast reactor: https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/891572/video-352489-h264_high.mp4
July 29, 2014
The paper "Thermal-hydraulics of internally heated molten salts and application to the Molten Salt Fast Reactor" by C. Fiorina, A. Cammi, L. Luzzi, K. Mikityuk, H. Ninokata and M. E. Ricotti, reporting results of the study done in cooperation with POLIMI (Italy), has been published in Journal of Physics: Conference Series 501 (2014) http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/501/1/012030
July 28, 2014
The IAEA Technical Working Group on Fast Reactors (TWG-FR) has been representing for decades the main international framework for information exchange and technical cooperation in the area of fast reactors. TWG-FR meets every year: the last, 47th meeting was on May 19-23, 2014 in Vienna. We represented Switzerland: http://www.iaea.org/NuclearPower/Meetings/2014/2014-05-19-05-23-TWG-NPTD.html
July 25, 2014
The Generation IV International Forum (GIF) Annual Report highlights the main achievements of the Forum in 2013, and in particular the progress made in the collaborative R&D activities of the ten existing project arrangements. FAST contributed to the chapter on Gas-cooled Fast Reactor. https://www.gen-4.org/gif/jcms/c_64097/2013-gif-annual-report
July 23, 2014
TECDOC "Benchmark Analyses on the Control Rod Withdrawal Tests Performed during the PHÉNIX End-of-Life Experiments" (TECDOC-1742)", reporting the results of the Coordinated Research Project in which we took part, is now available on the IAEA publications website: http://www-pub.iaea.org/books/IAEABooks/10745/Benchmark-Analyses-on-the-Control-Rod-Withdrawal-Tests-Performed-during-the-PHNIX-End-of-Life-Experiments
July 22, 2014
We presented five papers at International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE22) held on July 7-11, 2014 in Prague, Czech Republic: three of them were about different studies of Molten Salt Reactor, one was on designing of gas-cooled sub-critical transmuter, and one was on the OpenFOAM-based solver for simulation of reactor dynamics. The paper "Parametric lattice study of a graphite-moderated Molten Salt Reactor" presented by Boris Hombourger was selected for the best student paper award in the region Europe.
June 26, 2014
Russia's Beloyarsk-4 Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor BN-800 is close to start-up. http://www.nucnet.org/all-the-news/2014/06/25/russia-s-beloyarsk-4-ready-to-begin-nuclear-reaction
June 24, 2014
The paper "Application of an iterative methodology for cross-section and variance/covariance data adjustment to the analysis of fast spectrum systems accounting for non-linearity" by S. Pelloni is published in Annals of Nuclear Energy 72 (2014) 373–390. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2014.06.002
June 20, 2014
New website http://psi.ch/fast is online.
June 13, 2014
The paper "Methods and Issues for the Combined Use of Integral Experiments and Covariance Data: Results of a NEA International Collaborative Study" by M. Salvatores, G. Palmiotti, G. Aliberti, P. Archier, C. De Saint Jean, E. Dupont, M. Herman, M. Ishikawa, T. Ivanova, E. Ivanov, S.-J. Kim, I. Kodeli, G. Manturov, R. McKnight, S. Pelloni, C. Perfetti, A.J.M. Plompen, B.T. Rearden, D. Rochman, K. Sugino, A. Trkov, W. Wang, H. Wu, and W.-S. Yang. to which we contributed in frames of the OECD NEA SG33 is published in Nuclear Data Sheets 118 (2014) 38–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nds.2014.04.005
June 13, 2014
The paper "Sensitivity and Uncertainty Analysis of the GFR MOX Fuel Subassembly" by J. Lüley, B. Vrban, Š. Čerba,J. Haščik, V. Nečas, and S. Pelloni to which we contributed in frames of the FP7 EURATOM GoFastR project is published in Nuclear Data Sheets 118 (2014) 545–547. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nds.2014.04.130
April 9, 2014
One of the five papers selected for the "Best paper award 2013" for Progress in Nuclear Energy is the article we published in cooperation with POLIMI (Italy) and Westinghouse (USA): "Investigation of the MSFR core physics and fuel cycle characteristics" by C. Fiorina, M. Aufiero, A. Cammi, F. Franceschini, J. Krepel, L. Luzzi, K. Mikityuk, M.E. Ricotti http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pnucene.2013.06.006.
March 31, 2014
Swiss National Science Foundation awarded our proposal for PhD study on "Small modular Molten Salt Fast Reactor design for closed fuel cycle".
February 16, 2014
A patent submitted by the FAST reactors group on "A wrapper tube for a fuel subassembly of a nuclear reactor core and method for protecting fuel against overheating in case of coolant boiling" by Konstantin Mikityuk, Aurelia Chenu and Kaichao Sun is published at http://www.google.com/patents/EP2610875A1?cl=en.
December 2, 2013
"Fuel cycle advantages and dynamics features of liquid fueled MSR" by J. Krepel, B. Hombourger, C. Fiorina, K. Mikityuk, U. Rohde, S. Kliem, A. Pautz is published in a special section devoted to MSR and FHR of February 2014 issue of Annals of Nuclear Energy http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2013.08.007.
December 2, 2013
"Fuel cycle advantages and dynamics features of liquid fueled MSR" by J. Krepel, B. Hombourger, C. Fiorina, K. Mikityuk, U. Rohde, S. Kliem, A. Pautz is published in a special section devoted to MSR and FHR of February 2014 issue of Annals of Nuclear Energy http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2013.08.007
November 29, 2013
January 2014 issue of Nuclear Engineering and Design publishes "Code assessment and modelling for Design Basis Accident Analysis of the European sodium fast reactor design. Part I: System description, modelling and benchmarking" by A. Lázaro, L. Ammirabile, G. Bandini, G. Darmet, S. Massara, Ph. Dufour, A. Tosello, E. Gallego, G. Jimenez, K. Mikityuk, M. Schikorr, E. Bubelis, A. Ponomarev, R. Kruessmann, M. Stempniewicz. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2013.10.019
November 2, 2013
The International Thoriem Energy Conference ThEC 2013 took place in the CERN Globe of Science and Innovation, Geneva, Switzerland on October 27-31, 2013. The video of the presentation by Jiri Krepel "PSI studies on advanced fuel cycle options for fast/thermal MSR utilizing thorium" is available on-line at http://cds.cern.ch/record/1625809.
November 1, 2013
Boris Hombourger started his PhD at the FAST reactors group on "Small modular Molten Salt Fast Reactor design for closed fuel cycle" (supported by EPFL).
September 30, 2013
The paper "Investigation of the MSFR core physics and fuel cycle characteristics" by C. Fiorina, M. Aufiero, A. Cammi, F. Franceschini, J. Krepel, L. Luzzi, K. Mikityuk, M.E. Ricotti is published in September issue of Progress in Nuclear Energy. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pnucene.2013.06.006
September 20, 2013
The paper "Coupled 3-D neutronics/thermal-hydraulics optimization study for improving the response of a 3600 MW(thermal) SFR core to an unprotected loss-of-flow accident" by K. Sun, A. Chenu, J. Krepel, K. Mikityuk, R. Chawla is published in September issue of Nucear Technology. http://www.ans.org/pubs/journals/nt/a_19436
May 28, 2013
The paper "Heat transfer to liquid metal: Review of data and correlations for tube bundles" by K. Mikityuk published in NED in 2009 is included in the list of Most cited Nuclear Engineering and Design articles.
May 1, 2013
Dr. Carlo Fiorina from POLIMI has started his postDoc study which will be performed in cooperation with EPFL on neutronic analysis of the gas-cooled accelerator-driven system fuelled with sphere-pack fuel in frame of CCEM MeAWaT project (Methods of Advanced Water Treatment)
February 22, 2013
A proposal for the EURATOM project ESNII+ "Preparing ESNII for HORIZON 2020" was highly evaluated and now is at the negotiation phase. The aim of this cross-cutting project is to develop a broad strategic approach to advanced fission systems in Europe in support of the European Sustainable Industrial Initiative (ESNII) within the SET-Plan. To provide a technical input to the development of the roadmap several technical work packages were included in the project. FAST is responsible for WP6 "Core safety".
November 27, 2012
Our application with Dr. Sara BORTOT from POLIMI (Italy) to the PSI-FELLOW program (30 postDoc positions supported by EC Marie-Curie fellowships) was successfully evaluated by reviewers. The topic of the 2-year postDoc study is "Transient analysis of the ASTRID sodium-cooled fast-spectrum reactor core behaviour at different fuel cycle stages under sodium boiling accidental conditions with the FAST code system".
September 6, 2012
Dr. Kaichao Sun won one of the three prizes at the 6th PhD event organised by European Nuclear Education Network (ENEN) Association.
August 3, 2012
Two papers (Part 1 and Part 2) by A. Chenu, et al. on "Analysis of selected Phenix EOL tests with the FAST code system" are published in Annals of Nuclear Energy.
August 2, 2012
Dr. Youpeng Zhang started his post-doctoral study in Generation-IV fast-spectrum core and system analysis at the FAST reactors group.
July 31, 2012
Kaichao Sun successfuly defended his thesis on "Optimisation of Safety Parameters for Generation IV Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) Equilibrium Cores".
May 18, 2012
The paper titled "Coupled 3D-Neutronics / Thermal-Hydraulics Analysis of an Unprotected Loss-of-Flow Accident for a 3600 MWth SFR Core" presented by Kaichao Sun at the PHYSOR 2012 meeting held in April 2012 in Knoxville (USA) was selected as worthy of submission to the Nuclear Technology Journal for publication.
March 23, 2012
We are very glad and proud to announce that Kaichao Sun, PhD student at the FAST reactors group, has just received the Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Students Abroad by China Scolarship Council. He is one of approximately 500 students to receive the award all over the world. The topic of his PhD study is "Optimisation of Safety Parameters for Generation IV Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) Equilibrium Cores".
September 12, 2011
Aurelia Chenu has successfully passed her PhD final exam at EPFL. The topic of her PhD thesis was "Single- and Two-Phase Flow Modeling for Coupled Neutronics / Thermal-Hydraulics Transient Analysis of Advanced Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor".
August 17, 2011
Mercedes Alonso has successfully passed her MS final exam at PSI. The topic of her Master thesis was "Development of a full-core ERANOS Model and neutronic analysis of the BN-600 Fast Reactor Core Mock-up at the BFS-2 zero-power facility".
June 9, 2011
In frame of the NES PhD day Mr. Kaichao Sun has won a prize for the best work among third-year students. The title of his presentation was "Neutronics design optimization for a 3600 MWth SFR".
April 7, 2011
Joseph Saliba has successfully passed his MS final exam at PSI. The topic of his Master thesis was "Comparative Decomposition Analysis of Reactivity Effects for the main Gen-IV Fast Reactors".
August 10, 2010
Aaron Epiney has successfully passed his PhD final exam at EPFL. The topic of his thesis was "Improvement of the Inherent and Passive Safety Characteristics of Generation IV Gas-cooled Fast Reactors".
May 29, 2010
Kristina Yancey, a student from Texas A&M, receives Fulbright grant for study in the FAST group. Kristina starts in September 2010 and the title of her 9-month study will be "Development of a Comprehensive Model of a Lead-cooled Fast-spectrum Nuclear Reactor".
June 2, 2010
The presentation of Aurelia Chenu, FAST PhD student, at the 4th ENEN PhD event was granted one of the two prizes. The title of her presentation was "Modelling of sodium boiling for coupled neutronic/thermal-hydraulic transient analysis of the Gen-IV SFR".
March 30, 2010
Arnau Pont Ribas, MS student at FAST, has successfully passed his final exam. The title of his thesis was "Simulation of CABRI loss-of-flow experiments with the TRACE/FRED codes".
March 3, 2010
Christine Klauser, MS student at FAST, has successfully passed her final exam. The title of her thesis was "Neutronic Analysis of the European Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor Demonstrator ALLEGRO and its Validation via Monte Carlo TRIPOLI Calculations".
February 1, 2010
The paper "FAST: An advanced code system for fast reactor transient analysis" by K. Mikityuk, S. Pelloni, P. Coddington, E. Bubelis, and R. Chawla published in 2005 in Annals of Nuclear Energy has recently been included in the Annals of Nuclear Energy's "Top 10 Cited" list.
September 3, 2009
Robert Adams, MS student at FAST, has been awarded one of the three "best student" prizes at the Frederic Joliot/Otto Hahn Summer School on Nuclear Reactors "Towards Implementation of Fast Reactor Technology" (August 26 -- September 4, 2009, Karlsrue).
July 17, 2009
The paper "FAST Code System: Recent Developments and Near-future Plans" presented by Dr. K. Mikityuk at the ICONE-17 conference was selected among other 14 papers for publishing in the ASME Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power. The total number of papers was 650+.
June 8, 2009
Aaron Epiney, PhD student at FAST, has won one of the three prizes at the 3rd ENEN (European Nuclear Education Network) PhD Event with his paper "Gas-cooled Fast Reactor: Studies on Safety Enhancement".
June 2, 2009
Bruno Colin joins the FAST group as a summer student to work during June-August 2009 on development of the XT-ADS computer model with the TRACE code.
May 28, 2009
Gaetan Girardin successfully passed his PhD final exam at EPFL. The topic of his thesis was "Development of the Control Assembly Pattern and Dynamic Analysis of the Generation IV Large Gas-cooled Fast Reactor (GFR)".