Abstract

 Advanced nuclear reactors promise a safer, more flexible, and economically more viable alternative to traditional light water reactors. As the nation’s premier nuclear science and technology lab, the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) leads research, development, and demonstration projects supporting the ultimate deployment of advanced nuclear reactors. Modeling and Simulation has become a cornerstone for the design and safety assessment of new nuclear reactors. The problems encountered for advanced reactors invariably involve multiphysics phenomena. To address these issues, Idaho National Laboratory created the multiphysics object oriented simulation environment (MOOSE), a flexible, extendible, and high-quality software package for modeling multiphysics problems. This talk revolves around the use of MOOSE applications to tackle some of the most challenging problems of advanced reactors. Examples will include pebble bed reactors, molten-salt reactors, and nuclear thermal propulsion systems.

Biography

Dr. Sebastian Schunert is a staff scientist at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) where he works on the development and deployment of the next generation analysis methods for advanced reactors. After receiving his PhD from North Carolina State University, he joined INL in 2014 to work on radiation transport methods for multiphysics problems. During his tenure at INL, Dr. Schunert continued to advance analysis methods for advanced reactors including pebble bed reactors, molten salt reactors, and nuclear thermal propulsion systems in the multiphysics object oriented simulation environment (MOOSE).