College leads in funding for nuclear energy research
The College of Engineering at North Carolina State University will receive more than $7.1 million from the Department of Energy to further research on nuclear energy.
DOE announced $82 million in awards funding 93 projects in 28 states. NC State received the most overall funding and the most funding for fellowships of any university in the United States.
Faculty members in the Department of Nuclear Engineering and the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering will lead four research projects. The College also received funding for upgrades to its PULSTAR nuclear reactor and funding for three fellowships and three scholarships.
Over the last eight years, the College has received $24 million in DOE funding for nuclear research, third most of any university in the nation.
Integrated Research Project
$4,000,000
Dr. Nam Dinh – Department of Nuclear Engineering
Researchers will develop and demonstrate a comprehensive data-driven methodology for the validation of risk-informed safety margin characterization models for nuclear power plant safety analysis. The project will advance simulation-based uncertainty analysis techniques to enable effective implementation of the methodology. The team will apply the validation methodology to guide the validation of flooding simulation code NEUTRINO and for system thermal-hydraulics analysis code RELAP-7.
Reactor Upgrade
$480,000
Dr. Ayman Hawari – Department of Nuclear Engineering
NC State will upgrade components of the PULSTAR reactor control console instrumentation and monitoring equipment to increase the reliability of critical monitoring channels and the level of redundancy and backup functionality between channels to eliminate the possibility of critical failures leading to extended facility shutdowns.
Research and Development Projects
$800,000
Dr. Jacob Eapen – Department of Nuclear Engineering
Researchers will characterize steam attack, hydrothermal corrosion and radiation swelling of SiC/SiC composites-based accident tolerant fuel using a combination of experiments, microstructure evaluation and phase-field simulations using MARMOT. Central to the project is the mapping of the microstructure after steam/hydrothermal/irradiation tests through a unique non-destructive x-ray microscopy technique followed by phase-field simulations of chemical transport in MARMOT.
$799,998
Dr. Tasnim Hassan – Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering
Researchers will develop structural design methodologies for Type 316H stainless steel and Alloy 617 compact heat exchangers (CHX) using elastic-perfectly plastic analysis methodology for the assessment of elevated temperature failure modes under sustained and cyclic thermal and pressure loading. The project will develop a technical basis for Section III, Division 5 ASME Code Case for CHX in high temperature nuclear service.
$564,520
Dr. Steven Shannon – Department of Nuclear Engineering
Researchers seek to advance EMP design efforts for liquid metal reactors by 1.) Improving MHD modeling capability, particularly near the MHD stability criteria, 2.) Advancing simulation accuracy and fidelity in the typical operating range of large electromagnetic pumps for liquid metal cooled reactors, and 3.) Constructing a low barrier EMP test loop for model validation and instruction that can be easily replicated at low cost at other facilities.
Three fellowships – $465,000
Three scholarships – $22,500
