Long-Life Microreactors with Thorium–Uranium Fuel Cycles and High-Burnup TRISO Fuel Forms - College of Engineering - Purdue University

Project Description

Microreactors promise decade-long operation without refueling, but achieving this with acceptable excess reactivity and fuel integrity remains unsolved. This project develops a digital reactor framework for long-life microreactors using thorium-bearing UCO TRISO fuel. High-fidelity Monte Carlo neutronics coupled to thermal-hydraulic feedback will map how uranium-to-thorium and plutonium-to-thorium loading, carbon-to-oxygen ratio, and packing fraction govern neutron spectrum, conversion, isotopic evolution, and reactivity swing over core lifetime. In-core conversion of Th-232 to U-233 offers a flatter reactivity trace and reduced burnable-poison demand; post-shutdown Pa-233 decay introduces a reactivity addition that must be quantified for an unattended core. The work will assess UCO against UO2 at high burnup, where excess carbon getters oxygen, suppressing CO overpressure and kernel migration that drive SiC coating failure. Whole-core depletion with double-heterogeneity treatment will be reduced to a fast surrogate model, enabling design-space exploration and digital-twin operational studies that full-order models cannot support. Outcomes are a validated modeling toolchain, a defensible fuel-composition envelope for cores exceeding ten years, and burnup limits tied to predicted particle failure. Applications include remote power, industrial process heat, hydrogen production, and firm electricity for data centers.

Start Date

March, 2027

Postdoc Qualifications

PhD in nuclear engineering, reactor physics, or a closely related field. Required: demonstrated experience with deterministic lattice transport and full-core diffusion or transport solvers, and with Monte Carlo neutron transport and depletion. Direct experience with DRAGON5, DONJON5, and OpenMC is strongly preferred; candidates with equivalent experience in SCALE, Serpent, MCNP, or Griffin/MAMMOTH who can transition to the DRAGON5/DONJON5/OpenMC toolchain will be considered. Strong scientific programming in Python or C++ is expected, along with familiarity with CLE-2000 or similar input scripting. Desirable: experience with TRISO or other particle fuels and double-heterogeneity treatments; thorium fuel cycles; HTGR, microreactor, or Generation IV core design; coupling of neutronics with thermal-hydraulics; and reduced-order or surrogate modeling. The candidate should work independently across reactor physics and data-driven modeling, mentor graduate students, and communicate results through publications and presentations to DOE and industry audiences.

Co-advisors

Hitesh Bindra , hbindra@purdue.edu
Arun Prakash, aprakas@purdue.edu

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