Past Event: Oden Institute Seminar

Computational Nuclear Energy R&D at UT

Kevin Clarno, Associate Professor, Nuclear and Radiation Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Oden Institute, UT Austin

Abstract

As the world transitions from the current fleet of nuclear reactors, based on water-cooled technology driven by the 1960s nuclear Navy, to advanced concepts that utilized advanced materials and technologies with a wide range of performance goals, there is a critical need to develop validated, high-fidelity physics models of systems to ensure safe operation in all potential accidents despite many uncertainties.  This seminar will introduce the physics of nuclear reactors, the numerical methods for accurate simulation, and how UT is helping to build a molten salt nuclear research reactor that will provide the data for validation and calibration of the software and methods currently being developed, which includes opportunities for graduate and post-graduate research. 

Biography

Dr. Clarno is an Associate Professor in the Nuclear and Radiation Engineering program and Core Faculty in the Oden Institute with a research focus on computational nuclear energy and nuclear reactor analysis.  Dr. Clarno worked 15 years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and was also assistant professor at the University of Tennessee as joint faculty member in nuclear engineering. He has been a leader in national, multi-institutional high-performance computing (HPC) research programs for the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy.