Search

Core design is the a priori study of the behavior of a reactor core throughout a cycle between two fuel reloads. There is a growing interest in using Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to accelerate this type of calculation. Coupled thermal-hydraulic/neutronic calculations allow access to many variables of special interest to develop a digital twin (metamodel), which can be used, for instance, for pattern optimization, since it presents restrictions from the point of economics, safety and licensing. This work presents a neural network (NN) trained to obtain a metamodel, which will be used to determine different optimal configurations of the fuel elements based on certain criteria.

GRE@T-PIONEeR - GRaduate Education Alliance for Teaching the PhysIcs and safety Of NuclEar Reactors - is a project funded by the Euratom – Horizon 2020 Framework Programme which aims at developing and providing specialised and advanced courses in computational and experimental reactor physics at the graduate level (MSc and PhD levels) and post-graduate level, as well as the staff members working in the nuclear industry. One of the work packages of GRE@T-PIONEeR is devoted to developing a specific course on the nuclear data pipeline processes and to present the role of nuclear data to play in calculations of innovative reactor systems. This course covers all steps in the nuclear data life cycle, starting from the measurements to their validation and final use in nuclear reactor calculations. Beyond the technical contents of the courses being developed, the paper describes the use of innovative pedagogical methods and active learning techniques, such as flipped classes, aimed at promoting student learning.