US researchers have made a breakthrough in the safety of micro-sized nuclear reactors. In the future, the temperature of the reactor can be monitored in real time with a 3d mapping system, Interesting Engineering news.
An innovation by a team of researchers at the University of Michigan paves the way for the wider use of microreactors. Mobile, small-sized reactors can produce energy steadily, for example in remote regions, disaster areas or during military operations.
In Applied Mathematical Modelling published the study describes a system that utilizes a theoretical basis for evaluating basis functions that describe data trends. The system reconstructs the temperature distribution inside the reactor.
In the preliminary evaluation, it was concluded that the base functions are not accurate enough to monitor the reactor temperature in the real world. Now the research team has succeeded in improving the functions.
The researchers suggest that accuracy can be improved by using functions tailored for each reactor from the calculated temperature distribution.
The researchers believe that the new findings may enable the use of a digital twin to monitor microreactors. A digital twin is a virtual model that is constantly updated.
“Our methods are particularly well-suited for remote applications because they take into account the computer’s memory, which is useful for delivering detailed information to digital twins with limited computational capabilities,” Ph.D. Dean Price says.
The US military plans to deploy micro-sized nuclear reactors by 2030. The country’s Ministry of Defense launched a tender, in which participating companies must develop a 3-10 megawatt reactor.