Annals of Nuclear Energy最新文献

{"title":"Machine learning applications in nuclear power plant piping inspection: A review of methods, data, and future trends","authors":"Afzal Ahmed Soomro ,&nbsp;Osman K. Siddiqui ,&nbsp;Afaque Shams ,&nbsp;Belal Almomani","doi":"10.1016/j.anucene.2025.111760","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anucene.2025.111760","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Piping safety is an important concern in nuclear power plants, where an inaccurate prediction of pipe failure will lead to financial loss and fatal incidents. Traditional inspection methods are too laborious and costly, and require expert knowledge. Machine learning (ML) models can learn from the available data and be used for nuclear piping safety. A comprehensive literature search reveals that no existing review has focused exclusively on piping safety using ML in nuclear power plants (NPPs). Keeping this in view, efforts have been made to provide a comprehensive review of this topic. The review reveals the main research gaps by investigating the current studies conducted for the safety of NPP piping systems subjected to corrosion using ML. Various ML models and datasets have been reviewed in this review article. It was observed that convolutional neural network, support vector machine, and artificial neural network are the most widely developed models. Vibration-based datasets have been extensively utilized in ML applications for analyzing pipe degradation due to their effectiveness in capturing structural health changes and predicting failures, pipe degradation severity, pipe wall thinning rate, flow accelerated corrosion rate, and pipe elbow thinning rate. Despite the successful implementation of the ML models on available data, major limitations include data scarcity (due to cost and labor required to run the inspections or simulations) and limited scenarios (restricted operating conditions and geometries of piping). In addition, future recommendations such as applying synthetic minority oversampling technique, generative adversarial neural network, transfer learning, and physics-informed ML are discussed to improve the ML application for NPP piping systems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8006,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Nuclear Energy","volume":"225 ","pages":"Article 111760"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144704483","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Superiority of clay composite materials of bentonite intercalated with the bimetallic MOFs-Pb/Cu, and nano magnetite to enhance the gamma and neutron radiation shielding","authors":"Islam M. Nabil ,&nbsp;Sameh A. Elhameed ,&nbsp;Elhassan A. Allam ,&nbsp;K.A. Mahmoud ,&nbsp;Shaaban M. Shaaban ,&nbsp;R.A. Elsad ,&nbsp;Islam N. Fathy","doi":"10.1016/j.anucene.2025.111762","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anucene.2025.111762","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this study, a series of ternary nanocomposite materials were developed by integrating bentonite clay with nano magnetite and bimetallic metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) based on Pb/Cu and tartaric acid as organic linker. These composites were synthesized in varying compositions and systematically evaluated through both experimental techniques and theoretical modeling for their gamma radiation shielding performance. The composites were formulated with fixed proportions of 40.0 % bentonite as a base material with varying ratios of MOFs and nano magnetite specifically: (60.0–X) % bimetallic Pb/Cu-MOFs and X% nano magnetite, where X = 45.0 %, 30.0 %, and 15.0 %. These formulations are denoted as [B₄₀MPC_X_MG_(60-_X₎]. Comprehensive characterization of the base material of bentonite, and the Pb/Cu-MOFs was conducted using FT-IR, Raman, XRD, XRF, and HR-TEM tests. The radiation shielding properties of the composites were then assessed using Monte Carlo simulation code (MC) and Phy-X software across a broad photon energy range (0.015–15.0 MeV). Key shielding parameters were calculated to evaluate the shielding effectiveness. The results revealed that the MOF-Pb/Cu content controls either the γ-radiation and neutron attenuation performance in the prepared B₄₀MPC_XMG_(60-X) nano-composites. The B₄₀MPC₄₅MG₁₅ sample exhibited the highest linear attenuation coefficient for gamma radiation among the prepared composites, along with the lowest values of H/TV_L. Additionally,the B₄₀MPC₃₀MG₃₀ sample demonstrated the highest fast neutron removal cross-section among the prepared composites. The B₄₀MPC₃₀MG₃₀ sample is recommended as the optimal composition for superior shielding performance against both gamma rays and neutrons.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8006,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Nuclear Energy","volume":"225 ","pages":"Article 111762"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144712891","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Flow stability and linear disturbance analysis of single-phase natural circulation loop under different thermal boundaries","authors":"Yiwa Geng,&nbsp;Jiatai Liu,&nbsp;Yuntao Zheng,&nbsp;Yanyu Sun,&nbsp;Jun Fang,&nbsp;Shuliang Huang,&nbsp;Hui Wang,&nbsp;Yuxiang Wu","doi":"10.1016/j.anucene.2025.111752","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anucene.2025.111752","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Natural circulation is a common flow state that occurs in the pressurized water reactor’s normal operation conditions and accident scenarios. Essentially, the driving force between a lower-level heat source and a higher-level cold source will cause the flow. During the pressurized water reactor design process, the natural circulation concept is applied intelligently in the passive system. Compared to active driving, passive driving is equipped with the characteristics of a low driving force and is easily affected by other factors, like flow resistance, and impurities in the working medium, increasing the system’s uncertainty. Flow instability is an important phenomenon that affects the passive system function. Flow oscillations will cause the components mechanical fatigue and departure from nucleate boiling, which further triggers power oscillations due to thermal–hydraulic and neutron coupling. Nyquist Criterion and Root-Search methods have been proposed by previous researchers for solving rectangular loop stability boundaries. On this basis, this paper proposes an Identifiable-Parameter Stability Criterion (IPSC). A one-dimensional mathematical analytical model of the simplified rectangular loop under different thermal boundary conditions was developed based on the linear perturbation analysis method. This paper removes the restriction of symmetry conditions in previous work, expanding the applicability of thermal boundary conditions. Based on the mesh discrete-independence calculations, the effect of size proportions in non-uniformly arranged loops on stability is analyzed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8006,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Nuclear Energy","volume":"224 ","pages":"Article 111752"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144696498","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fuel relocation dynamics in sodium-cooled reactor transients: numerical modeling and experimental benchmarking with CABRI-LTX data","authors":"Shaowei Tang ,&nbsp;Rui Hou ,&nbsp;Siqi Feng ,&nbsp;Bin Zhang ,&nbsp;Jianqiang Shan","doi":"10.1016/j.anucene.2025.111742","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anucene.2025.111742","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs) hold strategic significance in China’s nuclear energy roadmap. To address the growing demand for advanced safety analysis tools, the integrated SFR simulation code ISAA-Na is under development. Fuel relocation dynamics, particularly cladding failure and fuel ejection during transient overpower (TOP) events, constitute critical phenomena requiring high-fidelity modeling. A numerical model was implemented in ISAA-Na to simulate multiphysics-coupled fuel relocation processes under accident conditions. The model employs a 1D compressible flow formulation with variable flow cross-sections, incorporating simplified yet physically consistent assumptions for interfacial heat/mass transfer and phase transitions. The model was benchmarked against the internationally recognized CABRI-LTX transient experiment. Key parameters including coolant flowrate, temperature transients, void front progression, and axial fuel distribution showed close agreement with experimental data. The ISAA-Na fuel relocation model demonstrates robust predictive capability for SFR severe accident scenarios, providing a validated tool for safety analysis of Chinese SFR designs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8006,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Nuclear Energy","volume":"224 ","pages":"Article 111742"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144702173","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"New thorium core loading patterns for high temperature gas cooled nuclear microreactors","authors":"Senem Şentürk Lüle ,&nbsp;Muhammed Mustafa Bircan ,&nbsp;Feride Kutbay ,&nbsp;Sefa Sayın ,&nbsp;Üner Çolak","doi":"10.1016/j.anucene.2025.111745","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anucene.2025.111745","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Ten different 50:50 vol ratio thorium core loading configurations for a chosen HTGR microreactor were compared with original uranium core loading from neutronics point of view. 2.72 × 10⁹ individual TRISO particles except for homogeneous fuel configuration were modeled. The best configuration was achieved when fuel channels with three layer axial ThCO-UCO-ThCO seed/blanket were placed in the core as radial seed/blanket configuration with ThCO filled fuel channels. With thorium loading, initial criticality was reduced from 1.301 to 1.2619 and EFPD from 3500 days to 1775 days but power generation, power peaking factor, and maximum axial power peaking factor in the highest power producing fuel channel were increased therefore the burnable poison distribution optimization was performed to reduce these parameters. When compared with 20.35 kW, 2.13, and 1.3 values for aforementioned parameters for uranium configuration, 20.70 kW, 2.17 and 1.70 values for thorium core loading are acceptable.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8006,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Nuclear Energy","volume":"224 ","pages":"Article 111745"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144702172","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Comparative analysis of aerosol transport characteristics between high and low gas-liquid surface tension coefficients conditions","authors":"Zhongkai Mei ,&nbsp;Fanli Kong","doi":"10.1016/j.anucene.2025.111753","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anucene.2025.111753","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Aerosol particle interfacial behavior is a pivotal factor to affect the decontamination factor under pool scrubbing conditions, where few attentions has been devoted to this crucial physical phenomenon. In this work, the case of single bubble rising with internal aerosol transport is investigated by the VOF-LPT method. Given that the present interfacial process belongs to the capillary-dominant regime, an interfacial penetration model is employed to include the influence of particle interfacial behavior. Under the circumstance of two typical internal flow fields, aerosol global distribution and removal distribution with various sized particles are examined thoroughly and systematically. The results revealed that in terms of aerosol global distribution, the displacement distribution is mainly subject to bubble shape, while the velocity distribution is largely dependent on internal flow field. As for aerosol removal distribution, the dependency of aerosol deposition velocity on aerosol size is subject to the compromise between internal flow intensity and particle inertia. The weakened flow field is found to slow down aerosol internal circulation, which decontaminates aerosol laterally by the continuously fluctuating interface.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8006,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Nuclear Energy","volume":"224 ","pages":"Article 111753"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144696496","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Experimental and analytical model study on the process of sub-cooled water jetting from high-energy pipelines","authors":"Tao Zhang ,&nbsp;Qincheng Bi ,&nbsp;Miao Gui ,&nbsp;Fan Feng ,&nbsp;Zhaohui Liu ,&nbsp;Teng Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.anucene.2025.111747","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anucene.2025.111747","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The leakage and jetting of sub-cooled water from high-temperature and high-pressure vessels or pipelines, as well as their related protection, present safety concerns in the nuclear power industry. This study employed experimental research and theoretical analysis methods to study the variation of the jet expansion process of high-temperature and -pressure sub-cooled water jetting with diverse inlet parameters, as well as the vaporization during flow and jetting. The jetting processes can be divided into two types based on whether a phase change occurs within the pipeline. Based on experimental phenomena and explanation of theory, a proposal of the criteria for distinguishing these two types of jetting is presented, and a general analysis was conducted on the angle of jet cone expansion and magnitude of impact pressure under the two types of jets.</div><div>Research has found that when there is no phase change inside the pipeline, the jetted fluid will vaporize within a certain distance from the pipeline outlet. The intensity and expansion angle of this process are mainly related to the temperature difference between the liquid core and the environment. The dissipation effect of vaporization will weaken the impact effect. Conversely, the occurrence of a phase transition process inside the pipeline will influence the expansion process of the jet cone at a relatively longer distance from the spout, as well as the attenuation pattern of jet impact force. Additionally, this article also compared several existing models and meticulously examined their applicability.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8006,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Nuclear Energy","volume":"224 ","pages":"Article 111747"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144696497","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Unsteady flow behaviors of supercritical carbon dioxide centrifugal compressor under inlet pressure fluctuation","authors":"Zimu Yang,&nbsp;Hongsheng Jiang,&nbsp;Weilin Zhuge,&nbsp;Yuping Qian,&nbsp;Yingjie Chen,&nbsp;Yangjun Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.anucene.2025.111743","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anucene.2025.111743","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The unsteady flow behaviors of supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO<span><math><msub><mrow></mrow><mrow><mtext>2</mtext></mrow></msub></math></span>) centrifugal compressor near the critical point affect the stable and efficient operation of the S-CO<span><math><msub><mrow></mrow><mrow><mtext>2</mtext></mrow></msub></math></span> Brayton cycle. The S-CO<span><math><msub><mrow></mrow><mrow><mtext>2</mtext></mrow></msub></math></span> scroll-centrifugal compressor was proposed by the authors for Brayton cycles. As the high-pressure stage within this compressor, the centrifugal compression operates at inlet pressure fluctuation brought by the upstream scroll compression, leading to additional flow losses. In this paper, the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculations were conducted within the S-CO<span><math><msub><mrow></mrow><mrow><mtext>2</mtext></mrow></msub></math></span> centrifugal compressor under fluctuating inlet pressure. The unsteady performances of the S-CO<span><math><msub><mrow></mrow><mrow><mtext>2</mtext></mrow></msub></math></span> centrifugal compressor were manifested by hysteresis loop and outlet pressure fluctuation. The unsteady flow mechanism within the S-CO<span><math><msub><mrow></mrow><mrow><mtext>2</mtext></mrow></msub></math></span> centrifugal compressor under inlet pressure fluctuation was revealed. The interaction between the flow separation on the blade pressure surface and the wake secondary flow were strongly affected by the inlet pressure fluctuation, which can be weakened by the peaks of the fluctuation and strengthened by the troughs of the fluctuation. The interaction between the two flow distortions appeared stronger when rotating to the position adjacent to the volute tongue. The effect of the peak of the inlet pressure fluctuation to this interaction was stronger at lower flow rate conditions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8006,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Nuclear Energy","volume":"224 ","pages":"Article 111743"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144687269","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Implementation of inverse transform sampling method for photon transport in Monte Carlo code and nuclear data library preparation by NECP-Atlas","authors":"Rui Zhang,&nbsp;Tiejun Zu,&nbsp;Jiandi Guo,&nbsp;Qingming He,&nbsp;Hongchun Wu,&nbsp;Liangzhi Cao","doi":"10.1016/j.anucene.2025.111756","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anucene.2025.111756","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Rejection sampling method is conventionally applied in Monte Carlo codes to simulate photon transport, which causes the thread divergence issues when the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) parallelism is adopted to accelerate the photon transport calculation. The inverse transform sampling method can address this problem. In this paper, the inverse transform sampling method is implemented in the Monte Carlo code NECP-MCX for photon transport. In order to provide necessary nuclear data for the inverse transform sampling, a photon-atomic interaction data library preparation module is developed in the nuclear data processing code NECP-Atlas. The accuracy of the inverse transform sampling method is verified through the One-Dimensional Sphere Problem, RFNC benchmark problem, and ALARM-CF-FE-SHIELD-001 benchmark experiment. The numerical results indicate that the accuracy of the inverse transform sampling method is comparable to that of the traditional sampling method.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8006,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Nuclear Energy","volume":"224 ","pages":"Article 111756"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144687268","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Decarbonizing Growth: Nuclear Energy, Green Investments, and CO₂ Emissions in BRICS Economies","authors":"Yuwei Xu ,&nbsp;Xiangyu Wu ,&nbsp;Nawal Abdalla Adam ,&nbsp;Mamadova Simuzar Sultan ,&nbsp;Ali Amreen Sumaira","doi":"10.1016/j.anucene.2025.111746","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anucene.2025.111746","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates the complex interrelationship between Nuclear Energy and Engineering (RENER), climate financing (CFIN), green energy (GE), and GDP in achieving sustainable environmental prosperity among BRICS countries over the period 2000–2020. Motivated by the escalating environmental challenges and uneven integration of green policies across BRICS nations, the research aims to assess how RENER adoption, supported by CFIN and GE, affects carbon emissions (CO₂) and economic outcomes. Using robust panel econometric techniques—including Modified Median Quantile Regression (MMQR), AMG, and CCEMG models—the study analyses data from Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, addressing cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity. Empirical findings reveal five key insights: (1) RENER significantly increases GDP across quantiles but is also positively associated with CO₂ emissions, indicating an environmental trade-off; (2) CFIN has a strong negative effect on emissions, confirming its role in sustainable energy transition; (3) GE negatively correlates with CO₂ emissions, reinforcing its ecological benefits; (4) GDP growth, while positive for prosperity, contributes to environmental stress; and (5) there is strong cointegration among all variables, implying long-term equilibrium relationships. The study concludes by advocating for tailored, country-specific policies that enhance access to CFIN, modernise grid infrastructure, and integrate subnational frameworks to harmonise growth with environmental targets.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8006,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Nuclear Energy","volume":"224 ","pages":"Article 111746"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144687267","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}