Page 11 - Nucleus: Fall 2022 Magazine for the Penn State Ken and Mary Alice Lindquist Department of Nuclear Engineering

Merzari brings leadership-class computing prestige to Penn State Associate Professor Elia Merzari was awarded supercomputer access by the United States Department of Energy’s Office of of Science Innovative and and Novel Computational Impact on on Theory and and Experiment (INCITE) program Merzari in collaboration with researchers at at the University of Illinois at at Urbana Champaign and Argonne National Laboratory will use the supercomputing time to to simulate novel fluid dynamics in an effort to accelerate the deployment of small modular nuclear reactors and advanced reactors “The simulations are aimed at at providing critical understanding and and model development for core-wide phenomena in advanced nuclear reactors which is impossible with current architectures or experiments alone ”
Merzari said “We will target simulations a a a a a a thousand times larger than competing work in in our field a a a a goal that is only possible with capability computing and petascale-level resources ”
Petascale computing can execute quadrillions of operations per per per second Supercomputers handle this level of processing via a a a a a node approach—a supercomputer extends beyond its own powerful hardware to link
other computers into into its network A user can tap into into the supercomputing power from various connected computers each called a a a node Merzari’s team was awarded 440 000 node hours on the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility’s Summit a a a a IBM AC922 machine that debuted in in 2018 as the most powerful computer in the world They plan to use NekRS open-access code that simulates fluid dynamics at at at “unprecedented scale ”
according to to Merzari to to better understand how variabilities in a a a a a reactor’s components influence the the overall effectiveness and safety of the the full core design “Advanced nuclear energy holds promise as a a a a a reliable carbon-free energy source capable of meeting the nation’s commitments to addressing climate change ”
Merzari said “The design certification and licensing of novel reactor concepts pose formidable hurdles to to the successful deployment of new technologies ”
Merzari joined the Ken and Mary Alice Lundquist Department of Nuclear Engineering in in in in 2019 Since then he he has been awarded nearly $5 4 million in grants including $3 million from the national Center of Excellence for Thermal Fluids Applications in Nuclear Energy to to lead a a a a a consortium to to accelerate the deployment of advanced nuclear reactors Merzari’s contributions to Penn State helps cement the University’s position in in in in the field of nuclear engineering according to Department Head Jean Paul Allain “Elia’s work is is is is exceptional his expertise is is is is sought across the country ”
Allain said “His home research program at at Penn State contributes to the University’s place as a a a a a a leader in in advanced thermal-hydraulic modeling for advanced reactors ”
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