Teaching
Safety Analysis for Small Modular Reactor
소형모듈원자로 안전해석
UndergraduateYear 33 creditsAdvanced major
A course on the design features and safety systems of small modular reactors (SMRs), and on the principles and procedures of system-code-based safety analysis. Up to the midterm you study a range of SMR concepts; after it, teams build a simplified system code and compute an accident with it.
Key question
Can you independently develop a system code that simulates the safety systems and accident thermal-hydraulic behavior of a small modular reactor, and propose safety evaluations and design improvements based on what it computes?
How the course runs
01
Before the midterm
Learning
- Design concepts and safety systems of water-cooled and non-water-cooled SMRs
- Thermal-hydraulic behavior during accidents
- The structure and modeling methods of reactor system codes
- Application procedures and limits, read from real safety analysis cases
02
After the midterm
Building
- Form a team and choose one SMR concept and one accident scenario
- Define the engineering problem — assumptions, control volumes, governing equations, constitutive relations, boundary conditions
- Build a simplified system code with Python, assisted by generative AI
- Run steady-state and accident transient calculations
- Check conservation, numerical convergence, and physical validity; verify against published literature or analytical solutions
- Assess safety, then present the model's limits and possible design improvements
By the end of this course
- 01Explain the design features, safety systems, and accident thermal-hydraulic behavior of a range of SMR concepts.
- 02Understand the control-volume models, conservation equations, heat-transfer models, and pressure-drop models used in reactor system codes, and apply them to reactor analysis problems.
- 03Develop a simplified reactor system analysis code with Python and generative AI, and carry out steady-state and accident transient analyses.
Format
- IC-PBL
- Team project
- Python coding
- Generative AI
Topics covered
- Design features across SMR concepts
- Passive safety systems
- Accident thermal-hydraulics
- System code structure and numerics
- Control-volume system modeling
- Python-based code development
- Steady-state and transient analysis
- Model verification and uncertainty
- SMR safety evaluation
- Design improvement
Course information
- Course code
- NUE4067
- Credits
- 3 credits
- Category
- Advanced major
- As of
- Fall 2026
Sustainable Development Goals
- SDG 7Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
Core competency
Collaboration
Check the academic portal for sections, timetables and rooms.
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