Dr. Jason Hou
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Nuclear Engineering
North Carolina State University

Abstract

This talk is focused on the design and optimization of the sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs) of two types: breed-and-burn (B&B) and burner reactor. It is motivated by the fact that SFRs can, with optional closed fuel cycle, extend the uranium resource and reduce the nuclear waste. The first half of the talk discusses the neutronic features of a B&B reactor and an innovative engineering solution to realize the 3-dimensional fuel shuffling, which enables at least 25-fold increase in the fuel utilization over the current once-through LWRs. The second half introduces a general framework developed for the SFR core optimization combining the sensitivity analysis, global optimization algorithm, and surrogate models. A case study of its application to the Advanced Burner Test Reactor (ABTR) core design will be presented.

Biography

Dr. Jason Hou is a Research Assistant Professor of Nuclear Engineering at North Carolina State University. Prior to the current position, he was a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at University of California, Berkeley. He holds Ph.D. and Master of Science degrees in Nuclear Engineering from Pennsylvania State University and University of Michigan, respectively. He received the Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Physics from Tsinghua University, China. His research expertise includes design and analysis of both light water reactors (LWRs) and non-light water advanced reactor systems, multi-physics simulation of nuclear systems, sensitivity and uncertainty analysis in modeling, fuel cycle analysis, as well as development, V&V and application of next generation reactor physics methods.

***This seminar will be streamed live on our NCStateNuclear YouTube channel***