Overview

The Multiphysics for Advanced Reactor Simulation (MARS) Center arises from the need for innovative and physically-detailed models for the design of the Gen IV nuclear reactors.

As the industry, government, and academia move forward in the concept development of safe, secure, and sustainable nuclear reactors to answer the need of cheap and carbon-free baseload power production, it is necessary to develop advanced modeling and simulation methodologies, algorithms, and tools that are accurate and fast. One main issue for the new concepts is the fact that they are characterized by different physical phenomena that are tightly coupled, as compared to the relatively loose coupling of the traditional commercial power plants.

The vision of MARS is to establish itself as the Center for the development of detailed Multiphysics algorithms and simulation tools capable of design and safety analysis of advanced and innovative reactors in real-time. This will be accomplished by combining a team of highly-skilled professors (both domestic and international) with different backgrounds (such as reactor physics, reactor thermal-hydraulics, material science, and chemistry), and private organizations.

Industry Members

Georgia Tech, North Carolina State University, Oak Ridge National Lab, Southern Company Services, TerraPower, Paul Scherrer Institute and Politecnico di Torino