ML22299A137
| ML22299A137 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | 07007030 |
| Issue date: | 10/26/2022 |
| From: | Hines W Univ of Tennessee - Knoxville |
| To: | Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards |
| Shared Package | |
| ML22299A134 | List: |
| References | |
| Download: ML22299A137 (1) | |
Text
Dr. Wes Hines jhines2@utk.edu University of Tennessee Nuclear Engineering Department and Fast Neutron Source
Study Nuclear Engineering: Save the World
Fast Neutron Source
- Highly Flexible Subcritical Core designed to replicate the neutron spectrum of any fast reactor (Pb, Na, MSR) or detonation by using artificial intelligence guided core design
- Used for
- Nuclear data uncertainty reduction to support
- advanced reactor design
- nuclear security applications
- Neutron filter design studies for isotope production
- Neutron sensor validation studies
- Nuclear criticality safety training (ORNL)
Fast Reactor Cross Section Data Needs Higher uncertainty in nuclear data will result in more conservative design which will make the plants more expensive and less competitive Modeling & simulation depends on nuclear data Next generation (fast reactor) reactor design is strongly dependent on modeling & simulation
Fast Reactor Designers Lead Fast Reactor Sodium Fast Reactor Sodium Fast Reactor Molten Chloride Salt Fast Reactor Molten Chloride Salt Fast Reactor Gas Cooled Fast Reactor Gas Cooled Fast Reactor
Nuclear Data Affecting Reactor Design Example 1 Beginning-of-Life (BOL) keff +/- 2.2%
Coolant temperature feedback coefficient +/- 138%
Void worth +/- 147%
Uncertainties in key design parameters due to nuclear data have been computed that may be used to set design margins during the TWR development program. The uncertainties of many parameters are higher than is desired, motivating additional efforts in cross section measurements, improved data evaluations, and data assimilations. -
N. Touran, et al.
Source: N. Touran and J. Yang, "Sensitivities and Uncertainties Due to Nuclear Data in a Traveling Wave Reactor," Proceedings of the PHYSOR 2016 Meeting in Sun Valley, ID, May 2016.
- A change in absorption cross section of 35Cl resulted in 2000 pcm change in BOL keff
- What are the consequences for depletion studies?
Takeaway: Lower confidence nuclear data leads to unnecessarily robust, ultraconservative and uneconomic designs.
Molten Chloride Fast Reactor 2011 Present Nuclear Data Affecting Reactor Design Example 2
Nuclear Data Needs
New Engineering Complex Provided the opportunity to design in a one-of-a-kind facility.
NASA, INNL, ORNL, and others contacted to develop vision (2017).
Opened for classes in August 2021.
Laboratory facilities are being completed.
UTK Fast Neutron Source (FNS)
FNS Facility Design:
- 16x70 Heavily shielded vault and adjacent control room
- Physical security systems
- 18 ceilings and Bridge Crane for moving shielding and core pieces FNS Core and Design:
- Neutron Generator driven subcritical system (.95-.98 Keff)
- Oscillator, Transfer System, and Beam Line for both integral and differential cross section measurements
- Highly flexible and reconfigurable design
INL VTR Concept - > STEK Facility Sub-critical Fast-Thermal Coupled Facility in Netherlands (operated 1969-1973)
Fast/Thermal coupled design to minimize fuel requirements Influence of fission product cross sections on European breeder reactor.
Integral measurements of fission cross sections by sample oscillator in fast spectrum using the inverse-kinetics method Unique experiment with a comprehensive list
(~ 115 samples) of fission products (and other materials) measured at 5 different core configurations to represent different levels of burnup.
Flexibility Concept
- MASURCA Facility (Cadarache, Fr.)
- Neutronics studies of fast lattices (1966)
- Air cooled fast reactor operating at
- maximum of 5kW th
- flux level up to 109 n/cm2/s
- Reconfigured into subcritical ADS: MUSE Flexible Design:
- Core of wrapper tubes 4x4x 1m long
- cylinder rodlets
- square platelets
- Flexible loadings Soule, R, W. Assal, P. Chaussonnet, C. Destouches, C. Domergue, G. Imel, G.M. Thomas, Neutronic Studies in Support of ADS : The MUSE Experiments in the MASURCA Facility, 2002
Fast/Thermal Coupled Design Concept 1 diameter Uranium rod (8 long) 1 square ended rectangle Pb, Na, or Salt (8 long)
Fast Cassette Flexible Core Design 24 30 30 Thermal Cassette 0.5 diameter Uranium rod (8 long)
High Density Poly Block Thermal Keff = 0.88 Fast Keff = 0.60 Coupled Keff = 0.95 Experimental Volume Flux 2.23E+06 w/ 3x10^9 n-Generator
Simulation Results Fast Flux Thermal Flux Reflector: 10 steel Shielding: 4 borated poly and 6 steel
Extreme Flexible and AI Design 0.5 thick Uranium plate 0.5 thick Lead plate 0.05 thick Cadmium plate 0.5 thick poly plate 6x6 x.5 Plate Design AI Design Optimization Human Design AI Design Initial Genetics Algorithm Design:
Reduced Uranium Mass by 3X Improved Performance by 3X
Expert-Designed vs. AI Designs
- When constraints were removed:
Loaded more fuel around the experiment volume Increased thermal booster size by moving polyethylene in center zone Added lead (reflector) behind neutron source Cadmium (thermal neutron poison) near experiment volume
- Performance Metric Results 92% higher Fast/Non-Fast Flux Ratio Matches neutron spectrum better 119% higher fast flux per source neutron Leads to quicker experiments Fast Flux F/NF Ratio Uranium Mass (lbs.)
GA A 2.29E+06 62.4 1788 GA B 2.72+06 42.8 1677 Cyl. Model 1.16+06 40.0 1709 Plate Model 1.24E+06 32.5 1739 Horizontal Cut of First Iteration of Plate Model (left) and an Example of GA designed FNS (right)
Color Key:
Uranium Lead Polyethylene Void Goal:
For a specific desired neutron spectrum and materials (advanced reactor design), optimize the distributions of the materials throughout the core.
GA
Multi-objective Optimization
- We may have several competing objectives for a Specific FNS loading design
- Maximize Flux
- Maximize Representativity
- Limits on Keff
- NSGA-II algorithm
- Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II
- Simultaneously optimizes each objective without being dominated by any other solution.
- Seen as selecting individuals spaced along a pareto front.
Need Slide Here
AI Aided GA Speed-up MCNP is very computationally intensive.
CNN is trained with learn relationships that MCNP calculates.
CNN is used to proactively delete poor designs GA Target Spectrum Multi-Objectives MCNP Objective Scores CNN Train CNN Recall Architecture Candidate Designs
Speed-up Results
- Reduced the number of calls to MCNP that resulted in poor designs that did not meet requirements such as Keff.
Shows the network learns features that are based on relative plate locations with one plate swapped: average error of ~0.00280 dk Pareto front expanded significantly.
Neutron Spectrum Representativity Calculated neutron flux spectra achievable by different FNS designs compared to a target flux spectrum from a generic sodium fast reactor.
FNS NRC Licensing The Fast Neutron Source Facility will require a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) 10 CFR 70 license prior to commissioning and operation.
Category I: Strategic special nuclear material uranium-235 (contained in uranium enriched to 20 percent or more in the U-235 isotope),
uranium-233, or plutonium.
Category II: Special nuclear material of moderate strategic significance 10,000 grams or more of uranium-235 (contained in uranium enriched to 10 percent or more but less than 20 percent in the U-235 isotope).
Categories III: Special nuclear material of low strategic significance 10,000 grams or more of uranium-235 (contained in uranium enriched above natural but less than 10 percent in the U-235 isotope).
Category II and above require 24 hour2.777778e-4 days <br />0.00667 hours <br />3.968254e-5 weeks <br />9.132e-6 months <br /> guard and layered defenses.
FNS NRC Licensing -continued
- Topical Areas of the License
- Organization
- Criticality safety
- Radiation protection
- Fire protection
- Environmental protection
- Security
- Materials control & accounting The University has already had several meetings with the NRC and in May of 2018, it filed a Letter of Intent with the NRC to submit a license application to possess and use special nuclear material (10 CFR Part 70) in its new Nuclear Engineering Building.
Path Forward
- Infrastructure Grant
- Turned down 4 times requesting neutron generators to use in our ATC facility and then the FNS
- Some reviews consider FNS as a long timeline and high risk of such as facility that uses close to a ton of 9.75% enriched Uranium.
- Independently moved forward with the DD neutron generator purchase
- Revised our plans into a stepwise design which will significantly reduce project risk through the initial utilization of several tons of natural Uranium which we currently possess.
- Risk reduction also results in reduced licensing requirements, lowered safeguards and material accountability requirements, and the removal of engineered safety and shutdown systems, to name a few.
Past FNS Meeting History Early discussions with ORNL (2017-)
Agreed on need and synergistic activities with criticality safety group Lou Qualls, David Holcomb, Doug Bowen, Alan Icenhour, Discussions with INL (2017-)
Phillip Finck, Kelly Beierschmitt, Brenden Heidrich, Visit to Cadarache with Phillip Finck and Jesse Gehin Discussion with Y-12 and BWXT on fuel manufacturing (2017-present)
Meetings with NRC on Facility Licensing (Apr. 2018)
Meetings with DOE Leadership (Apr. 2018)
Shane Johnson, Tom Miller, Frank Goldner, Dan Funk TRTR Meetings:
Douglas K. Morrell, DOE-NE Research Reactor Infrastructure Program Meeting with Brent Park NA-20 (Mar. 2019)
Meetings with key congressional personnel (2018-present)
Meeting with Thomas Zacharia (Apr. 2019)
Meeting with Brian Robinson, DOE MSR lead (Oct. 2019)
Meeting with Rita Baranwal DOE NE-1 (Nov. 2019)
Meeting with Dr. Kathryn Huff DOE NE-1 (August 2021)
FNS Select UTNE Investments UTNE Senior Design Projects (>2 per year funded and dedicated to FNS facility) 2017: Approach to Critical Facility, Fast Neutron Source Initial Design 2018: FNS Oscillator System, Automated Flux Mapping System 2019: Pneumatic Transfer and Counting System, FNS Flux Mapping Continued 2020: Pneumatic Transfer Continued, Shutdown System, Safeguards Design, Criticality Design 2021: FNS Time of Flight Chopper Design, FNS Time of Flight Detector Design NRC Licensing Preparations Meetings with NRC Collaboration with Ralph Butler Experimental Facility DD Neutron Generator, Custom Neutron Source Purchased ($230K)
Structural Components Purchased ($40K)
Radiation Monitoring Detectors ($20K)
Faculty Hires Vlad Sobes Sandra Bogetic
Vlad Sobes Research Interests
- Nuclear Data with a particular interest in the application of Artificial Intelligence
- Sensitivity/Uncertainty (S/U) analysis methods Previous Appointment
- Research Scientist, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Education
- PhD, Nuclear Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Related Service
- Chair of the 2021 Workshop for Applied Nuclear Data Activities (WANDA): AI/ML for Nuclear Data January 2020
Sandra Bogetic Research Interests
- Numerical methods for neutral particles
- Applications in reactor design, shielding, and nuclear security and nonproliferation Previous Appointments
- Postdoctoral Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Education
- PhD Nuclear Engr. University of California, Berkeley Related Serivce
- Co-Chaired WoNDRAM: Workshop on Nuclear Data for Reactor Antineutrino Monitoring.
January 2021
National Letters Support Evidence
- Douglas G Bowen: ORNL Section Head, Nuclear Criticality, Radiation Transport, and Safety (also nuclear data group)
- Specific Comments
- Jess Gehin: INL Associate Laboratory Director, Nuclear Science and Technology directorate
- Specific Comments
- In 2020 a $5M DOE Integrated Research Project proposal was submitted.
The goal of this NEUP-IRP is to design, license, construct, and test a facility that can be used to measure nuclear physics properties in specific fast reactor flux spectra. This project will deliver to the nation a Fast Neutron Source (FNS) experimental facility that supports Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs), as well as other advanced fast reactor concepts, through improved cross sections and neutronics codes for advanced reactor design and licensing.
- Therefore, a strong plan and team of faculty and laboratory experts have been identified to support final design, licensing, construction, and testing.
- The IRP was not funded, instead a Molten Salt loop was constructed at MIT, which was more in line with the call.
DOE IRP Proposal Reviewer Comments The project builds on a $129M investment from the University of Tennessee into a new nuclear engineering building which will house the FNS experiment. Overall, a very good proposal and good objectives but isn't MSR specific.
The proposals senior/key personnel have previous research experience with fast reactor design, and research reactor facilities and measurement systems.
The existing research space, instrumentation and facilities at the host institution and its partners will meet the needs of the proposed IRP.
The plan collaboration between UTK, ISU, NCSO, and ORNL, Y-12, INL is good and appropriate.
Excellent discussion on the use of the equipment to support the NE mission.
Safety and protocols well described. NRC licensing for SNM in progress - would be a good investment for NE.
There is no facility of this type in the U.S. to produce nuclear RR data for fast reactors. This will strongly support M&S, The Fast Flux Facility (FFF) addresses an identified gap by NSUF. Nuclear data is not well-represented in DOE-NE, but this supports M&S as well as other programs.
Well-organized and thorough plan. Each phase builds upon the previous one. Good team, drawing from the whole department.
Proposed research unquestionably addresses the needs of DOE-NE.
Ralph Butler NRC Licensing Expert Ralph A. Butler, P.E., has over 35 years if nuclear experience in the management, oversight, and operation of Navy, commercial, university, and U.S.
Department of Energy (DOE) facilities, both domestic and international.
Vetted by NRC.
RA BUTLER PE, LLC, St. Charles (2018 - present)
Senior Advisor to Northwest Medical Isotopes, LLC (2018-present)
NRC Licensing: Construction Permit - Operating License for their Radioisotope Production Facility University of Missouri Research Reactor Center, MURR, (2000-2017)
Director, MURR (2001-2017)
Overall responsibility for safe and reliable operation of the 10 MWe research reactor, Directed and oversaw the development and submission of multiple NRC license amendments including 20 year renewal of operation license.
Summary UTNE is constructing a Fast Neutron Source to meet national needs.
New building has opened and labs are being completed.
Custom DD Neutron Generator purchased.
Design changed to natural Uranium to reduce risk and show proof of principle.
Thanks to ORNL and INL for their collaboration and contributions.
FNS Publications Hines, J.W., J. Pevey, and V. Sobes, Preliminary Design of a Fast Flux User Facility at the University of Tennessee. American Nuclear Society Winter Meeting, 2018.
Pevey, J. Chvala, O., Davis, S., Sobes, V., and J.W. Hines, Genetic Algorithm Design of a Coupled Fast and Thermal Subcritical Assembly, Nuclear Technology, 206:4, 2019, doi: 10.1080/00295450.2019.1664198 Pevey, J. O. Chvala, S., Davis, V., Sobes, and J.W. Hines, Current Progress on the Design of a Coupled Fast-Thermal Subcritical Assembly, Transactions of the American Nuclear Society Vol 212, 2019.
Pevey, J, C. Salyer; O. Chvala; V. Sobes and J.W. Hines Multi-Objective Design Optimization of a Fast Spectrum Nuclear Experiment Facility Using Artificial Intelligence, Annals of Nuclear Energy, 162:7, 2021.
Pevey J, B. Hiscox, A. Williams, O. Chvála, V. Sobes, and J.W., Gradient-Informed Design Optimization of Select Nuclear Systems, Nuclear Science and Engineering, 2021.
V. Sobes, J. Pevey, A. Depillis, O. Chvala, S. Bogetic, W. Hines, The Fast Neutron Source at UTK: A Project with Massimo Salvatores, PHYSOR 2022.
Pevey, J.,V. Sobes and J.W. Hines, Neural Network Acceleration of Genetic Algorithms for Nuclear Core Design, Artificial Intelligence Applications in Nuclear Energy special issue of Frontiers in Energy Research, 2022.