Workshops
The PHYSOR2020 pre-conference workshops will be held on Sunday, March 29th. The workshops offer a space for conference attendees to engage with experts on important issues and questions related to the latest developments in computational tools for reactor analysis.
Capacity is limited and registration is required. The registration fee, for pre-conference workshops, which includes refreshments and lunch in each case, is as follows:
Half Day Workshops - £35
Full Day Workshops - £65
These workshops will be offered as an add-on via the PHYSOR2020 conference registration system.
Registration for PHYSOR2020 opens during the week commencing July 8th, 2019, when a link will be provided to book tickets and accommodation from this area of the website.
Workshop descriptions can be found below.
The Serpent Monte Carlo code has been developed for various reactor physics applications since 2004. In recent years the development has been focused on the Kraken framework, which serves as a computational platform for multi-physics applications, involving a two-way coupling between neutronics, thermal hydraulics and fuel behavior. The workshop provides a general overview of methodologies used in Serpent and other solvers in Kraken, together with practical examples on high-fidelity and reduced-order multi-physics applications.
Multi-physics capabilities in the Serpent and Kraken (full day)
OpenMC is an open source, general purpose, community-developed Monte Carlo particle transport code. This workshop will present a brief overview of the code and its features and then focus primarily on hands-on tutorials using the Python API. Topics covered will include settings up a model, post-processing, automated workflows, and working with nuclear data. The workshop will conclude with a discussion of ongoing and near-term developments. Prior knowledge of Python is useful but not required. A web interface will be available for participants to run OpenMC in the cloud, so participants do not need to have OpenMC installed on their computer beforehand.
OpenMC
(full day)
MAMMOTH is a general reactor physics application based on the multiphysics object oriented simulation environment (MOOSE) that leverages existing applications for solving complex reactor multi-physics problems. MAMMOTH is built on the radiation transport capabilities implemented in the Rattlesnake solver.
Rattlesnake solves the steady (source & eigenvalue) and transient radiation transport equation using the finite element method in space and discrete ordinates (Sn), spherical harmonics (Pn) or diffusion in angle. MAMMOTH implements micro- and macro-depletion capabilities, homogenization equivalence (SPH & discontinuity factors), and cross section generation algorithms. This workshop will include a tutorial of both Rattlesnake and MAMMOTH and will discuss the strong (implicit) and tight (Picard iteration) coupling of MOOSE applications. A variety of examples will be covered including: eigenvalue (C5G7), fixed source (Kobayashi), depletion (PWR pin depletion with and without feedback), coupling (strongly coupled versus tightly coupled), and transient (PKE solver, LRA benchmark, and simplified TREAT).
It is recommended that participants bring a laptop with MAMMOTH and Rattlesnake already installed (must be MacOS or Linux) to be able to participate in hands-on exercises. Access to this software will require a license agreement with Idaho National Laboratory. Please contact the INL Agreements Administrator at to initiate this process. This must be completed well in advance of the workshop.
Rattlesnake/MAMMOTH
(full day)
The high-performance computing (HPC) resources and the constant improvement of both numerical simulation accuracy and the experimental measurements with which they are confronted, bring a new compulsory step to strengthen the credence given to the simulation results: uncertainty quantification. This can have different meanings, according to the requested goals (rank uncertainty sources, reduce them, estimate precisely a critical threshold or an optimal working point) and it could request mathematical methods with greater or lesser complexity.
This workshop introduces the URANIE platform, an open source framework currently developed at the Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), in the nuclear energy division (DEN), in order to deal with uncertainty propagation, surrogate models, optimisation issues, code calibration. These methods can then be applied to many kinds of code (considered as black boxes by Uranie) so to many fields of physics as well.
In this workshop, a neutronic use-case will be introduced to show how URANIE can be used to perform a large range of analysis:
generate a design-of-experiments to propagate uncertainty, construct a surrogate model, perform an optimisation or a sensitivity analysis
URANIE
(morning - half day)
WIMS – Lattice Modelling (morning - half day)
WIMS is a multi-purpose reactor physics code that uses deterministic and Monte Carlo methods, developed by the ANSWERS Software Service of Wood. It has been successfully used in support of the design and operation of a wide range of nuclear reactors worldwide. Due to its open modular structure, WIMS can be used in a wide variety of modes. This means that almost all types of reactor physics calculation can be specified within WIMS.
This workshop covers the use of WIMS for lattice-scale modelling for LWR and fast-spectrum systems, with the intent of generating data for use in subsequent whole-core analysis. Descriptions of cross-section preparation and flux solution methods will be given, as well as the construction of WIMS calculation routes using its modular input scheme. The functionality of the WIMSBUILDER and Visual Workshop software for the pre- and post-processing of WIMS calculations will be discussed. Recent code developments have included the implementation of an uncertainty quantification toolkit for WIMS. Details of the application of this toolkit for assessing uncertainties in lattice calculations and the propagation of uncertainties from lattice to whole-core codes will be presented.
MONK is an advanced, 3D, continuous energy Monte Carlo code for criticality safety and reactor physics analyses. The workshop will demonstrate how to build a MONK model of LWR fuel assemblies, for benchmarking the deterministic WIMS calculation. It will also show how a continuous energy Monte Carlo MONK calculation can be used to generate resonance-shielded cross-sections for use in WIMS. The use of the uncertainty quantification tools in Visual Workshop and MONK will be demonstrated, including the use of Bayesian updating for validation/data assimilation and the use of a similarity index for the selection of appropriate validation data.
WIMS – Whole-Core Modelling (afternoon - half day)
Historically, the WIMS reactor physics code has been used as a tool for lattice calculations to generate data for use in separate whole-core codes (i.e. traditional two-step analysis). Recent work by the ANSWERS Software Service of Wood has considered the extension of WIMS to a whole-core code with a multiphysics capability.
This workshop covers the new whole-core capabilities within WIMS, currently targeted at steady-state and transient analysis for SMRs. A description of the framework to simplify the setup and execution of whole-core LWR problems will be presented. Details of new flux solvers that include functionality to target specific issues associated with whole-core solutions will be given. Thermal-hydraulic feedback is modelled by the use of a new, fully-integrated subchannel solver. Functionality to couple WIMS to other codes via a Fortran-C-Python interface has been developed. This provides a route for including fuel performance analysis within the calculation scheme.
It will be shown how the MONK model of the LWR fuel assembly, developed during the WIMS lattice modelling workshop, can be used hierarchically in building a whole-core MONK model, and a MONK steady state, clean core calculation will be used for benchmarking the WIMS whole-core calculation.
WIMS
Unfortunately this workshop has been cancelled due to circumstances beyond our control.
The PHYSOR2020 committee will be in touch with anyone who has booked already