Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics
This area of study is devoted improving the current understanding of the heat and mass transfer, and fluid mechanics processes which transport energy and mass in nuclear systems, and govern system performance and safety. Key phenomena studied include conduction, convection, and radiation heat transfer, phase change, and single and multi-phase flows. In addition to water used to transport heat in present-day reactors, study in this area also covers gas, molten salt, and liquid metal coolants for advanced fission and fusion systems, as well as transport and mixing processes that occur inside reactor containment structures and in environmental systems.
FACULTY
PB-AHTR uses conventional TRISO high temperature fuel in the form of pebbles slightly smaller than gold balls. The baseline PB-AHTR design uses the well understoof beryllium-based salt flibe(7Li2BeF4) as its primary coolant, and flinak (LiF-NaF-KF) as its intermediate coolant.
