RESEARCH REACTOR SIMULATOR

The research reactor simulator is a fast and robust PC based simulator of a small pool type research reactor developed for the purpose of:

A detailed paper on the simulator has been published in Annals of Nuclear Energy.

The source code for the simulator is available in the GitHub repository together with build instructions and continuous integration.

PHYSICS
- Low power reactor, thermal power lower than 1MW
- Reactor physics with simple feedback
- For training and education
- Robust, fast, works on PC
- NOT for thermal hydraulics
- NOT for accident analyses
SIMULATION
- Point kinetic with external source
- Six group approximation
- Fourth stage Runge-Kutta integration
- 1 millisecond time step
- Xenon poisoning
- Temperature feedback effects
- Pulse operation
- Heating of primary water
- Automatic SCRAM
- Simulation speed from 0.01x slow motion to 1000x real time
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
- Graphical user interface generated with the graphics card (or integrated graphics)
- 40 frames per second
- Custom elements for faster visualization
- Can run on an average computer or laptop
- Compiled for 64 bit operating systems
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
- OpenGL 3.3 or newer (click on your graphics card (or integrated chip) manufacturer for the latest drivers: AMD, Nvidia, Intel)
- A 64 bit Windows PC/laptop (Linux and iOS are not supported yet, 32bit windows is being depricated)
- C++ redistributable package for VS 2017 (Windows only requirement) - if you don't have it installed, you can get it HERE
- At least 400MB of RAM