· String Theory Ping List ·
· View or Post in 'blog · Join · Bookmark · Topics · post a topic · subscribe · Google ·
Posted on 01/25/2010 7:42:42 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
U.S. Department of Energy scientists say they've created a computer algorithm that allows a substantially enhanced view of nuclear fission. The Argonne National Laboratory scientists said the algorithm, known as the neutron transport code, enables researchers for the first time to obtain a highly detailed description of a nuclear reactor core.
"The code could prove crucial in the development of nuclear reactors that are safe, affordable and environmentally friendly," laboratory officials said in a statement.
To model the complex geometry of a reactor core currently requires billions of spatial elements, hundreds of angles and thousands of energy groups -- all of which lead to problem sizes with quadrillions of possible solutions, the researchers said. Such calculations exhaust computer memory of the largest machines, they said, and therefore reactor modeling codes typically rely on various approximations.
"The (neutron transport code) is intended to reduce the uncertainties and biases in reactor design calculations by progressively replacing existing multilevel averaging techniques with more direct solution methods based on explicit reactor geometries," said Andrew Siegel, leader of Argonne's reactor simulation group.
Officials said the code has run successfully in some of the world's fastest supercomputers, including the IBM Blue Gene at Argonne and the Cray XT5 at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
(Excerpt) Read more at spacewar.com ...
Blue Gene bump
To sell it to the Obama administration it would have to be UNsafe, Expensive, and environmentally fictious..
These programs will end up in two laboratories: Los Alamos or Livermore Labratories. They control these codes.Security of these codes is up to the Department of Energy. Whether they are “secured” is unknown.
algorithm = when Al Gore tries to dance to rap music
Maybe the NRC and the private company in Canada responsible for the Maple reactors intended to replace the NRU for research and producing medical isotopes can use this to figure out why the reactor is not behaving as expected and determine whether it is safe or can be made so with modifications. The failure of Maple 1 and 2 to come on-line as planned (they’re currently officially mothballed with no plans to bring them on-line) has been a huge blow to the world production of medical isotopes as the NRU has also been down for maintenance and rehabilitation. Reactor design is still not an exact science, due to its complexity, as described in this article.
I think that you are on to something.
How many computers and hard drives went missing at Los Alamos during the Clinton administration? And something that I recall was the discovery (many years ago) that one of the largest repositories of porn on the Internet was a server at Lawrence Livermore Labs...
Yup, really TIGHT security! We're SO screwed!
Mark
bump
If it’s better than MCNPX I’m interested.
Cars and homes with their own reactors would be pretty neat.
Glow’n da Dark Ping
I LOVE it - hahahahahaaha!!! Too funny!
mark for later.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.