Title:

Advancing Nuclear Analysis for Fusion Energy Systems through Integrated, Computationally Efficient, and Reliable Predictive Modeling

Speaker:

Dr. Bamidele Ebiwonjumi

Affiliation:

MIT

When:

Monday, March 3, 2025 at 11:00:00 AM   Add to Calendar

Where:

MRDC Building, Room 4211

Host:

Dr. Fan Zhang
fan.zhang@me.gatech.edu

Abstract

The exposure of structural materials and components in nuclear fusion reactors to high-energy neutrons coming from the plasma leads to irradiation and activation. Therefore, accurate and reliable predictive modeling and simulation of the fusion neutron interaction, nuclear heating, gas production, radiation damage, structural material degradation, resulting radionuclides, interaction of the decay photons after shutdown, and shutdown dose rate is needed for design, development, deployment, routine operation, maintenance, and satisfying regulatory licensing requirements. Compared to fission reactors, fusion reactors require different modeling approaches, analyses that have less developed computational tools, large and more complicated geometries, different neutron flux distribution, fewer experiments to support many nuclear analyses needed in design, lack of accurate and complete nuclear data needed for sensitivity and uncertainty analyses, and fractured simulation ecosystem subject to export control and posing a challenge to fusion workforce development. In this seminar, Dr. Ebiwonjumi will introduce a platform which provides an interface for efficient integration of different nuclear analyses capabilities to support accurate and reliable predictive nuclear modeling of fusion energy systems. He will also discuss the power of variance reduction to address the issue of expensive computations with a focus on sensitivity analysis and uncertainty quantification in fusion reactor designs.

Biography

Dr. Bamidele Ebiwonjumi is a Research Associate in the Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is a member of the development team for OpenMC, a Monte Carlo radiation transport code. His primary research area of expertise is the application of advanced tools and methods for Monte Carlo radiation transport with application of variance reduction techniques to the modeling and simulation fusion energy systems. He has worked on improving the reliability of fusion reactor designs through benchmarking, sensitivity analysis, and uncertainty quantification to support radiation shielding, deep penetration, tritium breeding, nuclear heating, activation, and shutdown dose rates calculations. Dr. Ebiwonjumi received his Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), South Korea in 2021. Before joining MIT PSFC, at UNIST he worked on development of deterministic and Monte Carlo computational tools and methods for light water reactor analysis, spent nuclear fuel radiation source term characterization, and multi-physics/multi-cycle analysis of commercial light water reactors.

Notes

Refreshments will be served.