2a: Efficient Monte Carlo Simulations in the Cloud

Research and development advances in novel nuclear reactor design for power generation depend on computer simulations to validate efficiency and safety. Most existing simulation codes require training and expertise and have restrictive licenses that make them hard to acquire and use. One promising open-source code is easy to use and is able to spread its calculations across many computers, but it is missing methods that allow users to quickly evaluate the safety of radiation shielding. An existing simulation code will be modified so that it can precisely evaluate how much radiation can penetrates through radiation shielding with a minimal amount of computation. A graphical user interface will be created to make the code easier to use, and to provide a way for users to run simulations using cloud computing resources. Results of simulations run in the cloud will then be visualized in the same interface, allowing researchers to spend more time on the science and less time concerned with making the code run on scarce computing resources. The developers of the simulation software will incorporate computational methods that allow quicker simulation of radiation shielding. Developers will build a web interface for the code that will send the computer models to run on cloud computing resources. An interface will be developed to start these simulations and display the results in a user’s web browser. Concurrently, research and development will be performed to prepare for an advanced version of these simulations in Phase 2. Companies developing advanced nuclear reactor concepts for energy production will want to perform their simulations with an easier interface and without the cost of purchasing their own computing clusters. They will be able to evaluate the effect of engineering changes to reactor core designs quickly and easily, with scalable cloud resources. With a common interface to multiple simulation codes, they could quickly validate results by running multiple simulation codes in parallel. This would reduce the amount of time it takes to validate designs and bring a new reactor concept to market. These benefits are commercializable through paid use of advanced features in our cloud computing platform.