Collaborative Project Will Improve Nuclear Reactor Simulations
By Kay Cordtz | October 27, 2009 A collaboration between
Brookhaven and Idaho national laboratories will improve the way
scientists model the inner workings of nuclear reactors. The
Department of Energy's Office of Science is funding the research
to develop more accurate reactor simulations, leading to better,
more efficient reactors. Scientists will use data from
experiments already performed at nuclear facilities around the
world to test and calibrate their models of nuclear reactions at
the atomic level. This will allow them to integrate data from
the meter scale with outcomes on the scale of the femtometer (1
quadrillionth of a meter). Brookhaven scientists Michal Herman,
Pavel Oblozinsky, and Marco Pigni of the National Nuclear Data
Center (NNDC) will use advanced modeling at the nuclear physics
(femtometer) level, while Idaho researchers will take charge at
the meter scale. Feeding off each other, the two groups will
test the simulations the