Publications related to Experimental validation of reaction rate distributions for a SVEA-96+ BWR assembly with hafnium control blades

Atomic level insight into irradiation effects in nuclear fuel materials

Microstructural evolution during in-pile irradiation, radiation damage effects and fission products behavior in UO2 nuclear fuel are key issues in understanding and for the modeling of the performance as well as safety characteristics of nuclear fuels in t ...

EPFL2024

Neutron-Gamma Noise Measurements in a Zero-Power Reactor Using Organic Scintillators

Andreas Pautz, Oskari Ville Pakari, Vincent Pierre Lamirand

Noise measurements in light water reactor systems aid in generating validation data for integral point kinetic parameter predictions and generating monitoring parameters for reactor safety and safeguards. The CROCUS zero-power reactor has been used to supp ...

Ieee-Inst Electrical Electronics Engineers Inc2024

Gamma-ray Spectroscopy in Low-Power Nuclear Research Reactors

Andreas Pautz, Oskari Ville Pakari, Vincent Pierre Lamirand

Gamma-ray spectroscopy is an effective technique for radioactive material characterization, routine inventory verification, nuclear safeguards, health physics, and source search scenarios. Gamma-ray spectrometers typically cannot be operated in the immedia ...

MDPI2024

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

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

Experimental study and interpretative modelling of the Power Exhaust in Configurations with Multiple X-Points in TCV

Sophie Danielle Angelica Gorno

Nuclear fusion presents a promising clean energy source to mitigate future energy crises, with magnetic confinement fusion well-positioned to provide a baseload scenario to power future reactors. The unmitigated power exhaust of such reactors threatens its ...

EPFL2024

Heterogeneous catalysis via light-heat dual activation: A path to the breakthrough in C1 chemistry

Bingqiao Xie

A hybrid photothermal catalytic system, which combines both the photochemical (light) and thermal (heat) activation pathways over a bifunctional catalyst, has demonstrated remarkable levels of reaction activity and selectivity when compared with individual ...

Cell Press2024

Monte Carlo analysis of BWR geometries using a cycle check-up methodology

Abdelhamid Dokhane, Hakim Ferroukhi, Alexander Vasiliev, Mathieu Hursin, Dimitri Rochman

Recent fuel anomalies at a Swiss power plant have motivated the development at PSI of the "Cycle Check-Up" (CHUP) methodology which consists in performing Monte Carlo transport calculations using nuclide compositions and thermal-hydraulic boundary conditio ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2023

Extension of GeN-Foam to departure from nucleate boiling prediction and validation against the OECD/NRC PSBT benchmark

Alessandro Scolaro, Carlo Fiorina, Hao Qin, Yuhang Niu

The prediction of departure from nucleate boiling (DNB) has always been a crucial aspect of thermal-hydraulic codes for the analysis of Light Water Reactors. In this paper, GeN-Foam, a multi-physics code developed based on OpenFOAM, has been enhanced to in ...

Elsevier Science Sa2023

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

Analysis of the preliminary campaign for the PETALE program

Andreas Pautz, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Thomas Jean-François Ligonnet, Axel Guy Marie Laureau

The PETALE program aims to provide new experimental data to constrain the stainless steel nuclear data. In this frame, a preliminary measurement campaign has been performed to characterize the neutron flux in key positions of the CROCUS reactor and to deve ...

EDP SCIENCES S A2023

Design and operational guidelines of solar-driven catalytic conversion of CO2 and H2 to fuels

Sophia Haussener, Sha Li

Sunlight-powered catalytic conversion of CO2 and (green) H2 into fuels and chemicals via Sabatier and reverse water gas shift (RWGS) processes offers a promising solution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase renewable energy utilization. The suc ...

ELSEVIER SCI LTD2023

A holistic investigation of photocatalytic hydrogen generation

Sangram Ashok Savant

Photocatalytic (PC) solar hydrogen production is a promising way to provide green hydrogen using only sunlight and abundant reactants such as water. PC approaches use catalytically active semiconductor particles suspended in liquid electrolytes. The partic ...

EPFL2023

Extension, validation, and optimization of Serpent/DYN3D/ATHLET code system for SFR applications

Vincenzo Anthony Di Nora

The sequence of codes Serpent/DYN3D has been developed by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf and successfully applied to core static and transient analyses of sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs). The successful application of the sequence to SFRs was ...

EPFL2023

Inferring free-energy barriers and kinetic rates from molecular dynamics via underdamped Langevin models

Fabio Pietrucci, Sara Bonella, David Daniel Girardier

Rare events include many of the most interesting transformation processes in condensed matter, from phase transitions to biomolecular conformational changes to chemical reactions. Access to the corresponding mechanisms, free-energy landscapes and kinetic r ...

Aip Publishing2023

Full-discharge simulation and optimization with the RAPTOR code, from present tokamaks to ITER and DEMO

Simon Van Mulders

Tokamak devices aim to magnetically confine a hydrogen plasma at sufficiently high pressure to achieve net energy production from nuclear fusion of light isotopes. Predictive modeling and optimization is crucial for reliable operation of tokamak reactors, ...

EPFL2023

Metal Catalysts for the Electrochemical Reduction of CO2

Cedric David Koolen

The world by and large has adopted the The Paris Agreement, which commits any signing party to cut greenhouse emissions drastically and prevent global heating above 2 °C beyond pre-industrial levels. For this ambitious goal to be met, ratifying states need ...

EPFL2023

Implementing Multi-Electron Transfer Strategies in Uranium Chemistry

Dieuwertje Katelijn Modder

In the last decades, the activation of small molecules has attracted increasing attention for their use as cheap and abundant feedstock. Low-oxidation state uranium complexes have displayed high reactivity towards small molecules thanks to their unique pro ...

EPFL2023

Extension of the OFFBEAT fuel performance code to finite strains and validation against LOCA experiments

Andreas Pautz, Alessandro Scolaro, Carlo Fiorina, Edoardo Luciano Brunetto

The mechanical analysis of nuclear fuel behavior under base-irradiation conditions has traditionally been performed adopting the small-strain approximation. However, many cases of interest for fuel behavior involve the occurrence of large rod deformations ...

ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA2023

3D Characterisation of Turbulent Plasma Filaments Using Gas Puff Imaging in the Tokamak à Configuration Variable

Nicola Offeddu

A key challenge for the development of fusion reactors based on magnetic confinement, such as tokamaks and stellarators, is the control of the turbulent processes. The most prominent feature of turbulence in the Scrape-Off Layer (SOL), the volume between t ...

EPFL2023