Recent Development of Thermochimica for Simulations of Nuclear Materials

Max Poschmann, Bernard W.N. Fitzpatrick, Srdjan Simunovic, Markus H.A. Piro

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

The open-source equilibrium thermochemistry library Thermochimica has previously been employed to study uranium dioxide nuclear fuel for light-water reactor (LWR) applications. Recently, significant improvements to the efficiency and range of applications of Thermochimica have been made. We will discuss these advances and demonstrate applications of Thermochimica for LWRs and next-generation nuclear technologies, such as Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs). Calculations on popular molten salt fuel materials, such as FliNaK, FliBe, and fission product containing salts, have been enabled through the implementation of the quadruplet approximation to the modified quasichemical model in Thermochimica, which takes into account first- and second-nearest-neighbor short-range ordering contributions to the Gibbs energies of liquid solution phases. Coupling of Thermochimica to various other software packages, such as the Multi-physics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) app Bison and Oak Ridge Isotope GENeration (ORIGEN), for nuclear fuel applications will also be demonstrated. Future work will include further software coupling, such as with Coolant-Boiling in Rod Arrays–Two Fluids (CTF) and the Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications (VERA).

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationTMS 2020 149th Annual Meeting and Exhibition Supplemental Proceedings
EditorsZhiwei Peng, Jiann-Yang Hwang, Jerome Downey, Dean Gregurek, Baojun Zhao, Onuralp Yucel, Ender Keskinkilic, Tao Jiang, Jesse White, Morsi Mahmoud
PublisherSpringer
Pages1003-1012
Number of pages10
ISBN (Print)9783030362959
DOIs
StatePublished - 2020
Event149th Annual Meeting and Exhibition of the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society, TMS 2020 - San Diego, United States
Duration: Feb 23 2020Feb 27 2020

Publication series

NameMinerals, Metals and Materials Series
ISSN (Print)2367-1181
ISSN (Electronic)2367-1696

Conference

Conference149th Annual Meeting and Exhibition of the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society, TMS 2020
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySan Diego
Period02/23/2002/27/20

Funding

Acknowledgements This research was undertaken, in part, thanks to funding from the Canada Research Chairs program (950-231328) of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Research was sponsored by the US Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation Program and Fuel Cycle R&D Program, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with UT-Battelle, LLC.

FundersFunder number
Nuclear EnergyDE-AC05-00OR22725
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Nuclear Energy
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Canada Research Chairs950-231328

    Keywords

    • Nuclear fuels
    • Simulations
    • Thermochemistry

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