Bio
Dr Emilian Popov is a Senior R&D staff member for the Thermal Hydraulics group in the Nuclear Energy and Fuel Cycle Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Dr Popov received his PhD (1998) in nuclear engineering from the Sofia Technical University, Sofia, and his BS and MS (1988) in thermal physics from the Moscow Power Institute, Moscow. He has over 25 years of experience in nuclear thermal design and safety analyses, computational fluid dynamics, single and two-phase turbulent flows and heat transfer, advanced multi-physics modeling, analytical benchmarks and parallel scientific software development. At ORNL, he works on the development of advanced multi-physics design and safety basis models for the present highly enriched uranium core and the low-enriched uranium core designs of the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR). Dr Popov is an internationally recognized expert with a proven record for success. He collaborated with leading nuclear vendors (Westinghouse, Siemens, Framatome) and trained at world leading research institutions like Cadarache center in France. He also serves as a reactor technology consultant to the DOS and contributes to promote the US advanced reactors deployment worldwide. Dr Popov is a recipient of the UT-Battelle’s 2019 Mission Support Award for his contributions towards the HFIR event causal analysis.
Education
Sofia Technical University, Nuclear Engineering, Ph.D., 1998
Moscow Power Engineering University, Nuclear Engineering, M.S., 1988
Technical Skills
- Experienced nuclear safety professional with specific focus on advanced multi-physics software and technology for high-fidelity modeling and simulation of nuclear systems.
- Expert in industry leading computational fluid dynamics technologies including COMSOL Multiphysics, STAR-CCM+, ANSYS Fluent/CFX, Siemens-NX, and others.
- Extended experience in AI driven design optimization algorithms using machine learning and advanced computing
- Wast expertise in many programming and scripting languages, including Fortran 90, C, C++, Python, Perl, and MATLAB.
- Expert with other engineering tools and packages, including RELAP5, TRACE, ATHENA, Pro-ENGINEER, SpaceClaim, LS-DYNA, MATLAB, Mathematica, VisIt, ParaView, and TecPlot.
Awards and Honors
- UT-Battelle Mission Support Award (2019) for distinguished performance and dedication in determining the causes of the first fuel element failure in 52 years of HFIR operation.
- ORNL Significant Event Award (2011) for significant contributions to the support to DOE in response to nuclear crisis at Fukushima.
- ORNL Appreciation Award (2011) for computational analysis activities related to the ORNL's response to the events at Fukushima Daiichi.
- ORNL Significant Event Award (2009) for significant project accomplishments in developing reactor CFD models for HPC with over billion of fluid elements.