Dr. Benjamin Beeler
Computational Scientist
Idaho National Laboratory

Abstract

Uranium (U) is alloyed with molybdenum (Mo) or zirconium (Zr) in order to stabilize the high temperature body-centered cubic phase of uranium for use in nuclear reactors. U-Zr alloy fuels have a history of usage in sodium-cooled fast reactors, generating a harder neutron spectrum as compared to traditional ceramic fuels while also offering excellent neutron economy and high burnup capability. U-Mo fuels are being pursued under the United States High Performance Research Reactor Program (USHPRR) as a low-enriched plate-type fuel alternative to current highly enriched research reactor fuels. Additionally, Uranium-silicide (U-Si) fuels are being pursued as a possible accident tolerant fuel (ATF). U-Si fuel benefits from higher thermal conductivity and higher fissile density compared to uranium dioxide (UO2). In order to perform engineering scale nuclear fuel performance simulations, the material properties of the fuel must be known. Currently, the experimental data available for these three U alloy fuels is rather limited. Thus, multiscale modeling efforts are underway to address this gap in knowledge. In this presentation, I will outline density functional theory and molecular dynamics work being performed on these fuel systems.

Biography

Benjamin Beeler is a computational scientist in the Computational Microstructure Science group in the Fuels Modeling and Simulation department at Idaho National Laboratory. His degrees are in nuclear engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology (B.S. 2008, M.S. 2011, Ph.D. 2013). He completed his postdoctoral appointment jointly at the University of California-Davis and the University of California-Berkeley. His professional interests are atomistic description and evolution of nuclear fuel and structural materials. He has extensive experience on interatomic potential development, particularly related to uranium and uranium-alloys. Since 2015, his primary focus within the MARMOT team is the investigation of metallic nuclear fuels utilizing density functional theory, molecular dynamics and phase-field methods.

***This seminar will be streamed live on our NCStateNuclear YouTube channel***