Frontiers in Nuclear Engineering | New and Recent Articles

This paper evaluates the neutronic feasibility and multi-physics safety of a hybrid Accident Tolerant Fuel (ATF) assembly in a VVER-1000 reactor. The proposed design strategically employs standard UO2 within the inner core and a high-density U3Si2 matrix in the peripheral pins to take advantage of inter-assembly thermalization for cycle length extension. Coupled evaluations were performed using O…

Industrial gamma radiography is a widely used non-destructive testing (NDT) technique, but it involves significant radiological risks that require precise planning of shielding and safety distances. Current practices rely heavily on in-situ radiometric measurements, which are time-consuming and may increase unnecessary operator exposure during setup and verification stages. This work presents RAD…

The safe geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste requires a passive multi-barrier system. This paper describes the engineered barriers foreseen in the provisional Swiss repository concept, covering both design aspects as well as evidence for their long-term performance. Disposal canisters made of carbon steel will be used for the encapsulation of spent nuclear fuel and vitrified high-…

The post-closure biosphere assessment and modelling in support of the general licence application for a deep geological repository for radioactive waste provides the basis for evaluating radiological consequences should radionuclides released from the geological repository reach the surface and near-surface environments. The assessment approach comprises the modelling of radionuclide migration in…

This paper describes the deep geological repository concept considered by Nagra in support of its recent general licence application and the methodology used by Nagra to demonstrate its post-closure safety. The concept presented is for a deep geological repository for high-level waste (HLW) and for low- and intermediate-level waste (L/ILW) located in the Opalinus Clay host rock in Switzerland. Th…

This work reports on a pilot study for optimizing the design of a fast neutron irradiation experiment in a thermal neutron spectrum, specifically the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR). A fast and robust multi-objective optimization workflow that leverages Python-based open-source tools was developed and applied to the ATR to optimize experiment design and boost fast energy neutrons at a desired irradia…

Germany's nuclear phase-out is being increasingly questioned due to rising electricity demand, geopolitical insecurity, and industrial competitiveness concerns. In no small part, the rethinking comes from a growing recognition that, although renewable energy remains central to climate neutrality, Germany's renewable-heavy energy transition is insufficient to meet climate targets. In addition to t…

IntroductionShallow machine learning algorithms exhibit low efficiency in fault diagnosis under the conditions of small-sample and unlabeled data. To address this critical problem, this paper focuses on developing an effective fault diagnosis method suitable for cross-reactor-type scenarios, which is of great significance for improving the safety and operational level of nuclear power plants.Meth…

It is essential for the safety assessment of a repository to analyze the release and transport of radionuclides from the near-field to the geosphere and subsequently to the surface environment. A new model has been developed in COMSOL Multiphysics based on input data from the safety case for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel at Olkiluoto. Complex processes, for example, nuclide decay, material c…

In this study, we analyze the impact of transforming a discrete fracture network (DFN) model to an equivalent continuum model (ECM) on flow and solute transport characteristics. The analysis was conducted in a setting derived from – though simplified relative to – in-situ fracturing conditions at the Forsmark site. The geometrical structure of the DFN model considered is combined successively wit…