Publications related to Neutronics Experiments and Analysis Related to Strong Moderation Heterogeneity in LWRs

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 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

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-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

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

High brightness neutron source optimized for very high pulsed magnetic field experiments

Mina Akhyani

Conducting neutron scattering experiments in the presence of high pulsed magnetic fields, namely above 40 T, provides valuable information about the magnetic structures of materials. However, these experiments are challenging and time-consuming because the ...

EPFL2024

Demonstration of a sparse sensor placement technique to the limited diagnostic set in a fusion power plant

Lorenzo Martinelli, Artur Perek

DEMO will have a limited diagnostic set for optimization of reactor performance, and limited diagnostic coverage due to challenging reactor conditions. This poses challenges for control, especially for detachment control which is planned to be performed wi ...

Elsevier Science Sa2024

Tool Developments in the OpenMC Code: Correlated Sampling and Transient Fission Matrix Approach Coupled to OpenFOAM

Thomas Jean-François Ligonnet, Axel Guy Marie Laureau, Elsa Merle

This article outlines the advancements made in broadening the application scope of the OpenMC neutron transport code to include thermohydraulic coupling and nuclear data uncertainty propagation. These developments primarily involve the incorporation of the ...

Taylor & Francis Inc2024

DEMO toroidal field coil fast discharge unit integration studies

Roberto Guarino, Alberto Ferro

The Fast Discharge Units (FDUs) of the Superconducting (SC) Toroidal Field (TF) coils in the European demonstration fusion power plant DEMO warrant the machine integrity over its full lifetime against severe failure events, such as SC coil quenches or any ...

Elsevier Science Sa2024

Design and assessment of an evaporating water-cooled methanation reactor for a SOE-based power-to-methane system

Philippe Aubin

The transition towards clean renewable energy sources, where wind and solar are prone to variation, requires adequate energy storage. Power-to-methane (PtM) systems can be part of the solution. Specifically, solid-oxide-electrolyser (SOE) based PtM systems ...

EPFL2024

Coupling a recurrent neural network to SPAD TCSPC systems for real-time fluorescence lifetime imaging

Claudio Bruschini, Edoardo Charbon, Andrei Ardelean, Paul Mos, Yang Lin

Fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLI) has been receiving increased attention in recent years as a powerful diagnostic technique in biological and medical research. However, existing FLI systems often suffer from a tradeoff between processing speed, accuracy, ...

Nature Portfolio2024

Innovative dud detection based on JET DT experience

Olivier Sauter, Alessandro Pau

DT operations at JET gave a unique and invaluable opportunity to design, develop and test real -time controllers that will be applied in future burning plasma devices, as ITER and SPARC. Among them, the dud detector [L. Piron et al. 2019 Fusion Eng. Design ...

Elsevier Science Sa2024

Innovative thermophysical characterization of an ATF composite cladding: the case of silicon carbide

Andrea Cavaliere

Nuclear power is a powerful technology that plays an important role in the fight against climate change, and research is continuously engaged in studies that could further improve its safety. After the Fukushima accident, Accident Tolerant Fuels research h ...

EPFL2024

High-Resolution Modeling Without Computation Slowdown for PETALE in CROCUS

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

In a collaboration between Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and CEA, in the fall of 2020, the experimental Programme d’Étude en Transmission de l’Acier Lourd et ses Eléments (PETALE) was successfully carried out in the CROCUS reactor of EPFL ...

2024

Design of an Open-Loop Pile-Oscillation Program in the CROCUS Reactor

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

As a follow-up to the CEA-EPFL PETALE experimental program on stainless steel nuclear data, the EPFL initiated an open-loop pile-oscillation experimental program in the CROCUS reactor: BLOOM. A reproduction of the critical experiments of PETALE, the progra ...

2024

Overview of fast particle experiments in the first MAST Upgrade experimental campaigns

Matteo Vallar

MAST-U is equipped with on-axis and off-axis neutral beam injectors (NBI), and these external sources of super-Alfv & eacute;nic deuterium fast-ions provide opportunities for studying a wide range of phenomena relevant to the physics of alpha-particles in ...

IOP Publishing Ltd2024

GHOST commissioning science results - II: a very metal-poor star witnessing the early galactic assembly

Pascale Jablonka

This study focuses on Pristine_180956.78-294759.8 (hereafter P180956, [Fe/H] = -1.95 +/- 0.02), a star selected from the Pristine Inner Galaxy Survey (PIGS), and followed-up with the recently commissioned Gemini High-resolution Optical SpecTrograph (GHOST) ...

Oxford Univ Press2024

Oxidation processes and me

Urs von Gunten

This publication summarizes my journey in the field of chemical oxidation processes for water treatment over the last 30+ years. Initially, the efficiency of the application of chemical oxidants for micropollutant abatement was assessed by the abatement of ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2024