Web Infrastructure for Remote Modeling and Simulation of Nuclear Reactors and Fuel Cycle Systems

The predictive modeling approaches and softwares being continually developed and updated by the DOE nuclear engineering scientists (under programs such as NEAMS, RISMC etc.) need to be efficiently transferred to the nuclear science and engineering community at large including academicians, industrial researchers, and regulatory communities. An optimal utilization of the nation’s intellectual property needs to be enabled. General Statement: RNET and ORNL are proposing to develop a Web2.0 platform for nuclear engineering community that facilitates relevant code identification and sharing, remote execution in a cloud/cluster, professional networking, and collaboration between various nuclear engineering groups scattered across the research entities in United States. The proposed portal will enable easy use of NEAMS tools, rapid dissemination of research results, easy sharing of knowledge, and a quick feedback mechanism between the nuclear engineering entities. Phase I Work: Phase I demonstration includes initial prototyping of the web portal and remote execution. A subset of NEAMS tools will be used to demonstrate execution of nuclear simulations on remote compute infrastructure yet local visualization. The programming interfaces provided by existing source code hosting websites (GitHub etc.), cloud resources, social networking websites, and other state-of-the-art web services will be identified to enable unified operations through a single web portal. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: The targeted customers include nuclear energy companies (GE Hitachi, AREVA, NuScale Power etc.), NASA divisions, DOD and its Prime Contractors (e.g., Boeing, Lockheed), and DOE agencies. The platform and the techniques will also be useful in various other scientific domains such as metereology and weather forecasting, industrial CFD, and high energy physics. KeyWords: Automated cloud execution, Scientific networking, Semantic web applications