NSE - Nuclear Science & Engineering at MIT

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Bucci, Buongiorno and McKrell awarded CEA, France grant

Bucci, Buongiorno, McKrell

Nuclear Science and Engineering (NSE) Research Scientist Matteo Bucci, Professor Jacopo Buongiorno and Research Scientist Thomas McKrell have been awarded $295,000 by the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) for a project on transient critical heat flux (CHF).

Bucci, Buongiorno and McKrell will investigate transient CHF phenomena under rapidly escalating heat fluxes, at time scales of milliseconds that are typical of reactivity initiated accidents in nuclear reactors. The researchers will leverage the advanced diagnostics developed in their group, such as infrared thermometry and high-speed video, to gain insight into the physical phenomena and generate a database that can be used for development and validation of transient CHF models. This new project will complete the analyses of a recent NSE research program sponsored by CEA on transient onset of nucleate boiling in both pool boiling and flow boiling conditions.

This investigation will ultimately reduce the uncertainties in predicting the safety margins in both design and analyses of CEA research reactors such as ORPHEE and RJH.

The CEA (Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives) is a French government-funded technological research organization. It is involved in setting up collaborative projects with partners around the world and is active in cross-disciplinary research in four main areas: low-carbon energies, defense and security, information technologies and health technologies.