Welcome!

Welcome to the Nuclear Reactor Analysis and Methods (NuRAM) website!

Latest News

We are slow to update this… to say the least. Here’s a fun of length of PhD by year for NuRAM people.

We will likely have 4 PhDs by the end of 2024!


Check out our Lab Guidebook!

Interested in joining the NuRAM group and what we’re about? Checkout a sample of our lab guidebook.


Recent Publications

2023 was pretty good year. Check out the publications below (also why can’t publishers standardize article metadata for citations?).

  1. Qicang Shen, Brendan Kochunas (2023) Practical considerations for the adoption of Anderson acceleration in nonlinear diffusion accelerated transport, Annals of Nuclear Energy, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2023.110330
  2. Qicang Shen, Nickolas Adamowicz, Sooyoung Choi, Yuxuan Liu & Brendan Kochunas (2023) Stability and Performance of the X-CMFD Method for Multiphysics Reactor Calculations, Nuclear Science and Engineering, DOI: 10.1080/00295639.2023.2270740
  3. Junsu Kang, Volkan Seker, Andrew Ward, Daniel Jabaay, Brendan Kochunas, Thomas Downar (2023) Cross section generation for a conceptual horizontal, compact high temperature gas reactor, Nuclear Engineering and Technology, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.net.2023.11.010
  4. Dean Price, Nathan Roskoff, Majdi I. Radaideh, Brendan Kochunas (2023). Thermal Modeling of an eVinciā„¢-like heat pipe microreactor using OpenFOAM, Nuclear Engineering and Design, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2023.112709
  5. Sooyoung Choi, Andrew Fitzgerald, Nicholas Herring & Brendan Kochunas (2023) Linear Source Approximation in MPACT for Efficient and Robust Multiphysics Whole-Core Simulations, Nuclear Science and Engineering, DOI: 10.1080/00295639.2023.2224234
  6. Una Baker, Marisol Garrouste, Sooyoung Choi, Gabriel J. Soto, Ross Snuggerud, Brendan Kochunas & Ben Lindley (2024) Simulation of the NuScale SMR and Investigation of the Effect of Load-Following on Component Lifetimes, Nuclear Technology, DOI: 10.1080/00295450.2023.2216973
  7. Qicang Shen & Brendan Kochunas (2023) High-Order Accurate Solutions of the Point Kinetics Equations with the Spectral Deferred Correction Method, Nuclear Science and Engineering, 197:7, 1364-1385, DOI: 10.1080/00295639.2022.2159276

and be sure to checkout the recent dissertations:

  1. Kabelitz, M. (2023). Multi-dimensional High-order Discretizations and Fast Solution Algorithms for Simplified Spherical Harmonic Approximations (Doctoral Dissertation) University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
  2. Li, J. (2023). Quantification and Minimization the Uncertainty Propagation of Monte Carlo Cross Section Generation for HTR Applications (Doctoral Dissertation) University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
  3. Herring, N. (2022). The Legendre Polynomial Axial Expansion Method (Doctoral Dissertation) University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. https://dx.doi.org/10.7302/4752
  4. Dodson, Z. (2021). Linear Diffusion Acceleration for Neutron Transport Problems (Doctoral Dissertation) University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. https://dx.doi.org/10.7302/2943

About

There are two main areas of research for the NuRAM group. First, Prof. Downar, with several students, have developed and maintained the PARCS Nodal Simulator since 1996. PARCS is the primary neutronics auditing tool use by the US Nuclear Regulator Commission for reactor licensing and evaluation. More information can be found on the PARCS page. The second area of research is centered around MPACT. MPACT is an advanced, full core, 3D, transport solver. Originally developed by Prof. Kochunas for PWR analysis. MPACT is developed by several students and staff between University of Michigan and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

We are adding content as time permits, but we hope this page will be useful. NuRAM is lead by Prof. Brendan Kochunas (and Prof. Tom Downar–who is transitioning to retirement).

For more information see our lab guidebook:


Recent Updates to the Site

  • This page.
  • Updated Dissertations
  • Updated journal articles (this page only)

Coming soon…

We hope to add some content along the following lines soon.

  • Technical Reports
  • More details on projects…
  • More details on courses…
  • More details on people