Publications by Tom Mager | EPFL Graph Search

Comparison of high-fidelity transport code predictions against the NECTAR intra-pin reaction rate measurements

Andreas Pautz, Oskari Ville Pakari, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Mathieu Hursin, Thomas Jean-François Ligonnet, Tom Mager

The advancement of high-fidelity nuclear reactor simulation methods is essential for reducing conservatism in safety margins and optimizing reactor design and operation. This work evaluates the predictive capabilities of the deterministic solvers GeN-Foam ...

2025

Preliminary Validation of Intra-pin Reaction Rate Predictions from the Deterministic Transport Codes GeN-Foam and MPACT

Andreas Pautz, Mathieu Hursin, Tom Mager

In response to the scarcity of validation benchmarks for high-fidelity neutronics solvers predicting pin-resolved neutron flux distributions, the Laboratory for Reactor Physics and Systems Behaviour (LRS) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausan ...

American Nuclear Society2024

Gamma noise to non-invasively monitor nuclear research reactors

Pavel Frajtag, Andreas Pautz, Oskari Ville Pakari, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Tom Mager

Autonomous nuclear reactor monitoring is a key aspect of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s strategy to ensure nonproliferation treaty compliance. From the rise of small modular reactor technology, decentralized nuclear reactor fleets may strain the ...

Nature Research2024

Validation of Intrapin Reaction Rate Distributions from Deterministic Transport Codes

Tom Mager

Efforts are underway worldwide to develop advanced simulation methods of nuclear power plants, with an improved resolution in space, angle and energy. These tools aim to enhance operational efficiency through the predictions of local phenomena critical for ...

EPFL2024

Intra-pin Reaction Rate Measurements in the CROCUS Experimental Reactor

Andreas Pautz, Oskari Ville Pakari, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Mathieu Hursin, Thomas Jean-François Ligonnet, Tom Mager

In response to the need for validating high-fidelity deterministic neutronics solvers capable of providing pin-resolved neutron flux distributions, intra-pin reaction rates measurements were performed in the CROCUS experimental reactor. A specially designe ...

2024

Design of an Instrumented Fuel Rod for Intra-pin Neutron Flux Measurements in the CROCUS Experimental Reactor

Andreas Pautz, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Mathieu Hursin, Thomas Jean-François Ligonnet, Won Dong Shin, Tom Mager

In response to the need for validating high-fidelity deterministic neutronics solvers capable of pin-resolved neutron flux distributions, an instrumented fuel rod was designed for the experimental reactor CROCUS, operated by EPFL’s Laboratory for Reactor P ...

2023

High accuracy measurement of the prompt neutron decay constant in CROCUS using Gamma Noise and bootstrapped uncertainties

Pavel Frajtag, Andreas Pautz, Oskari Ville Pakari, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Tom Mager

We experimentally demonstrate the advantages of gamma detection for noise measurements to deter-mine the prompt neutron decay constant a of a nuclear reactor using the power spectral density (PSD) method, coupled to a new uncertainty estimation scheme base ...

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2022

Investigation and Validation of Unstructured Mesh Methodologies for Modeling Experimental Reactors

Andreas Pautz, Mathieu Hursin, Carlo Fiorina, Tom Mager

This paper summarizes a methodology developed at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne for the neutronic modeling of the CROCUS experimental reactor and proposes solutions to the challenges one may face while modeling a research reactor with a complex g ...

MDPI2022

Development of a High Fidelity Model of the CROCUS Experimental Reactor

Andreas Pautz, Carlo Fiorina, Tom Mager

Measurements of scalar flux distributions with fine spatial and energy resolutions are needed to remedy one of the validation shortcomings of the novel neutronics full core solvers, such as MPACT and nTRACER. While a very detailed resolution of the flux ca ...

American Nuclear Society2022

Delayed gamma fraction determination in the zero power reactor CROCUS

Pavel Frajtag, Andreas Pautz, Oskari Ville Pakari, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Tom Mager

Gamma rays are an inextricable part of a nuclear reactor's radiation field, and as such require characterization for dose rate estimations required for the radiation protection of personnel, material choices, and the design of nuclear facilities. Most comm ...

EDP SCIENCES S A2021

VALIDATION OF THE GEN-FOAM MODEL OF THE CROCUS EXPERIMENTAL REACTOR

Andreas Pautz, Carlo Fiorina, Tom Mager

Since 2013, the Laboratory for Reactor Physics and Thermal-Hydraulics at the PSI and the Laboratory for Reactor Physics and Systems Behaviour at the EPFL are working towards the development of a multi-physics platform for coupled reactor analysis based on ...

American Nuclear Society2021