Developing cutting-edge modeling and simulation tools to accelerate advanced nuclear energy systems.
Advanced nuclear reactors have the potential to provide more energy with greater efficiency and reliability. However, accurately predicting the complex multiphysics behaviors involved in these systems demand sophisticated modeling, simulation, and visualization capabilities.
ORNL’s Advanced Reactor Systems group is simplifying these complexities, using modeling and simulation to inform digital twin technologies and immersive visualization techniques that provide precise insights into the behavior of next-generation nuclear reactors throughout their lifecycles.
Modeling the nuclear systems of tomorrow
The group specializes in modeling and simulating dynamic, multiphysics phenomena across a range of advanced reactor designs, supported by advanced computational toolkit incorporating predictive analysis, system optimization, and design validation help reactor developers visualize, evaluate, and improve reactor performance before systems are built.
The group’s core technical capabilities include:
- Advanced thermohydraulic modeling, enabling precise predictions of fluid flow, heat transfer, and system behavior under operating conditions.
- Dynamic systems simulations, providing realistic performance analysis of nuclear reactor control systems, operations, and safety scenarios.
- Fuel modeling, with specific expertise in molten salt reactor systems and metallic fuels.
- Comprehensive digital twin technologies, including full lifecycle simulations with hardware-in-the-loop capability to accurately represent physical reactor behavior.
The team also uses modern game engines to create immersive Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) visualizations, providing stakeholders with intuitive access to complex nuclear systems data and simulations.
Bridging advanced simulations and industry needs
The group collaborates extensively with industry partners, national laboratories, federal agencies, and regulatory bodies. This work ensures that the team’s modeling and visualization tools directly support the real-world design, operation, and regulation of advanced nuclear systems.
Our current collaborators include:
- NEAMS (Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation): Developing and maintaining high-fidelity nuclear energy modeling and simulation codes through the Department of Energy program.
- Department of Energy’s Microreactor Program: Modeling reactor control systems to integrate real-time digital twin modeling into microreactor designs in collaboration with INL.
- NASA’s Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP): Simulating and optimizing the control systems and multiphysics performance of advanced nuclear propulsion concepts.
- U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC): Providing computational expertise to create simulations which assist in evaluating the safety and operational performance of nuclear reactor systems.
- National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA): Supporting the Low-Enriched Uranium (LEU) conversion project through advanced reactor simulations.
- Department of Defense (DoD) and Savannah River Site: Offering unique AR/VR visualization and reality-capture support for critical operational needs.
Recent advances in reactor systems modeling
The Advanced Reactor Systems group offers its expertise in thermohydraulic and modeling capabilities to support advances in supercomputing, including the recent debut of the ExaDigiT Framework.
This open-source digital twin framework specifically tailored for liquid-cooled supercomputers, including ORNL’s Frontier system. The framework integrates thermal-fluid simulations and real-time telemetry data with advanced AR visualizations, highlighting ORNL's unique capability to model complex thermal-fluid systems comprehensively.
The success of this digital twin framework is inspiring computational leaders across industries to adopt similar technologies.
Toward an integrated digital nuclear future.
Looking ahead, the Advanced Reactor Systems group aims to drive the adoption of sophisticated digital twin technologies, enabling the nuclear industry to optimize reactor designs, enhance operational safety, and improve economic performance. Through rigorous modeling and immersive visualization, ORNL is laying the groundwork for reliable, efficient, and fully optimized nuclear energy systems capable of meeting future global energy demands.
