Welcome to the Nuclear Reactor Analysis and Methods (NuRAM) website!
Latest News
We had a great time in Pittsburgh for PHYSOR 2022. Great to see so many of our colleagues again and make some new friends. Here’s a picture of us at the poster session!
Left to Right: Dr. Yuxuan Liu, Dr. Qicang Shen, Thomas Folk, Dean Price, Prof. Brendan Kochunas, Dr. Shai Kinast, Jin Li, and Dr. Sooyoung Choi.
I’m really proud of all our students and staff who presented at the conference. Below is a list of our papers with links to the PDFs on the ANS Website
- T. Folk, S. Srivastava, D. Price, B. Kochunas, and K. Garikipati, “Analytic Error Analysis of Cross Section Interpolation Methods in Nodal Diffusion Codes-I: Theory”
- T. Folk, S. Srivastava, D. Price, B. Kochunas, and K. Garikipati, “Analytic Error Analysis of Cross Section Interpolation Methods in Nodal Diffusion Codes-II: Numerical Results”
- D. Price. T. Folk, S. Srivastava, K. Garikipati, and B. Kochunas, “Sensitivity Analysis of Homogenized Cross Sections in AP1000 Lattices”
- Q. Shen and B. Kochunas, “Anderson Acceleration Stability in NDA-Accelerated k-EIgenvalue Problems”
- Q. Shen and B. Kochunas, “High-Order Accurate Solutions of the Point Kinetics Equations with Spectral Deferred Correction Method”
- S. Choi and B. Kochunas, “PN Source Expansion Nodal Method in MPACT for Boiling Water Reactors”
- S. Choi, A. Ward, A. Graham, B. Collins, B. Kochunas, M. Asgari, “Preliminary Simulation Results of Peach Bottom Unit 2 Cycles 1 and 2 with MPACT”
- Y. Liu, D. Jabaay, B. Kochunas, and K.S. Kim, “Validation of MPACT BWR Capabilities Against Critical Experiments”
- K. Yokoi, T. Hino, K. Ishii, J. Miwa, H. Soneda, M.A. Kowalski, E. Shwageraus, B. Kochunas, S. Choi, Y. Liu, and Y. Nagaya, “Applicability of Neutronics Design Calculation Method for Axially Heterogeneous Core of RBWR (Resource-Renewable Boiling Water Reactor)”
- M. Hursin, P. Mala, A. Vasiliev, H. Ferroukhi, Y. Liu, S. Choi, B. Kochunas, “Comparison of CASMO-5, MPACT and Serpent 2 for the Modeling of Advanced BWR Lattices”
- S. Kinast, C. Filippone, B. Kochunas, “Stability Margin Analysis of the Holos-Quad Microreactor Design”
- D. Price, S. Kinast, and B. Kochunas, “Error Analysis of a Hybrid Control Drum Worth Model”
- U. Baker, M. Garrouste, S. Choi, G.J. Soto, B. Lindley, and B. Kochunas, “Development of a High-Fidelity Multi-Cycle Model of the Nuscale Small Modular Reactor Using VERA”
Recent Publications
For your reading pleasure, here are some of our recent publications. We update this about once a year, so be sure to check back!
- D. Price, M. Radaideh, B. Kochunas, “Multiobjective optimization of nuclear microreactor reactivity control system operation with swarm and evolutionary algorithms,” Nuclear Engineering Design, vol. 393, 111776, Jul. 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.nucengdes.2022.111776
- D. Price, S. Kinast, K. Barr, B. Kochunas, C. Filippone, “A perturbation-based hybrid methodology for control drum worth prediction applied to the HOLOS-Quad microreactor concept,” Annals of Nuclear Energy, vol. 168, 108903, Apr. 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.anucene.2021.108903
- D. Price and B. Kochunas, “Performing linear regression with responses calculated using Monte Carlo transport codes,” Nuclear Engineering and Technology, vol. 44, no. 5, pp. 1902-1908, May 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.net.2021.11.003.
- Z. Dodson, B. Kochunas, and E. Larsen, “The Stability of Linear Diffusion Acceleration Relative to CMFD,” Journal of Nuclear Engineering, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 336–344, Sep. 2021, doi: 10.3390/jne2040027.
- B. Kochunas and X. Huan, “Digital Twin Concepts with Uncertainty for Nuclear Power Applications,” Energies, vol. 14, no. 14, p. 4235, Jul. 2021, doi: 10.3390/en14144235. K. E. Barr, S. Choi, J. Kang, and B. Kochunas, “Verification of MPACT for the APR1400 Benchmark,” Energies, vol. 14, no. 13, p. 3831, Jun. 2021, doi: 10.3390/en14133831.
and be sure to checkout Zack’s dissertation: https://dx.doi.org/10.7302/2943
Virtual Tour
Watch the virtual tour of Prof. Kochunas’s Lab and the Nuclear Plant Simulator Laboratory:
(Note that we’ve moved to nicer offices, so our video is out of date at the moment. I hope to update this summer!
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).
Recent Updates to the Site
- Zack Dodson’s dissertation!
- Links to our PHYSOR 2022 papers
- Updated journal articles
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