PyVERAin: An Open Source, Python-based CASL Preprocessing Platform for Reactor Geometry, Code Discretizations, and Parallel Domain Decompositions

In 2015, the US electricity generation was about 4 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) gross with 797.2 billion kWh (19.5%) generated from nuclear power reactors. The US currently has 99 nuclear power reactors, 65 pressurized water reactors (PWRs) and 34 boiling water reactors (BWRs), operated by 29 different power companies. Almost all the US nuclear generating capacity comes from reactors built between 1967 and 1990. The lack of construction starts since 1977 is largely because gas generation was considered more economically attractive for several years and because construction schedules were frequently extended by opponents to nuclear power. But Watts Bar 2 (Tennessee), began commercial operation in October 2016 following Tennessee Valley Authority's decision in 2007 to complete the construction of the unit. US reliance on nuclear power has grown due to gains in power plant utilization through improved refueling, maintenance and safety systems at existing plants. The advanced modeling and simulation of nuclear power reactors is critical to the continued operation of the existing US plants and the design of future systems. Despite the known advantages of advanced modeling and simulation, many nuclear energy firms, or other manufacturing and engineering firms with equally complex preprocessing problems, simply cannot afford to contend with the overarching complexity nor deal with the capital outlays. Our proposal describes an approach to simplify the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL) Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications’ (VERA) preprocessing for the nuclear energy industry by developing an open-source platform to visualize reactor geometry, code discretizations and parallel domain decompositions. We anticipate the PyVERAin CASL preprocessing platform will be capable of visualizing full-core pin-by-pin input decks, and will be used to verify geometry and discretization specifications implemented in constituent analysis codes.