Web-Based Computational Model Builder for Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation

According to the World Nuclear Association, the U.S. is the largest producer of nuclear power worldwide. In fact, the U.S. provides over 30 percent of the worlds nuclear generation of electricity. Although few new reactors have been built in the past 30 years, the association anticipates that four to six reactors may be built by 2020. The first of the reactors will be built in response to 16 license applications, which have been completed since 2007, to build 24 additional nuclear reactors. Currently, both government and industry are working to accelerate approval for the construction and design of new nuclear energy plants. The U.S. nuclear industry has already achieved significant developments in the implementation of nuclear power plants due to advancements in refueling, maintenance, and safety systems at current power plants. Meanwhile, changes in government policy, which have occurred since the late 1990s, have provided for noteworthy expansion in nuclear capacity. For example, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 evoked investment in electricity infrastructure such as nuclear power. Today, the importance of nuclear power in the U.S. is a geopolitical matter as much as it is an economic one. This is due to the notion that increasing the use of nuclear power reduces the U.S.s reliance on imported oil and gas. In order to design future systems and continue operational improvements at existing U.S. plants, advanced modeling and simulation (M & amp;S) of nuclear power reactors is crucial. The proposal proposes to develop a Web-based, cloud-enabled, end-to-end software solution for nuclear energy advanced M & amp;S. Our approach will simplify the workflow for advanced M & amp;S by developing Web Services for our open-source computational model builder (CMB) to work on a range of nuclear energy applications. The Web-based CMB that provides advanced meshing, pre- and post- processing capabilities will then be integrated or consumed by the (NEAMS) In- tegrated Computational Environment (NiCE). These Web-based tools will simply guide end-users and developers through the advanced M & amp;S lifecycle. This work unifies the important components that span the advanced M & amp;S lifecycle, under a common set of Web-based, cloud-enabled APIs and tools that address them, and further demon- strates the utility of this approach in an end-to-end prototype. This project addresses the challenges of access and installation of software, and spiraling costs of resources by migrating CMB utilities to Web Services, and creating an end-to-end prototype using a rich, lightweight Web user interface front-end. The resulting suite of components will be customizable in order to target the specific needs of nuclear energy firms as well as other vertical markets.