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The Nuclear Reactor Physics group of the Department of Energy and Nuclear Engineering, and of Environmental Control (DIENCA) of the University of Bologna, under the leading experience of prof. Marco Sumini is involved in both theoretical and experimental studies in the field of nuclear fission reactors as well as plasma dynamics and devices design.
In particular, at the Nuclear Engineering Laboratory (LIN) of Montecuccolino the author is directly involved in deep research on plasma dynamics via computer simulation, new Generation-IV reactor design and national to regional fuel cycle scenarios study.
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Plasmas Dynamics via Computer Simulation
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The research activity in plasma physics is devoted to the numerical simulation of the electrical breakdown and the subsequent formation of a plasma from the gas filling the reaction chamber of a Plasma Focus (PF). A PF is a compact device, developed by the American physicist Mather in 1968, for the generation, the acceleration, the compression and the confinement of a plasma by the simultaneous action of high, pulsed electrical and magnetical fields. The closure of an external circuit onto a condensers bank, therefore the subsequent unloading of the bank itself over the two electrodes delimiting the reaction chamber imposes a fast-growing electrical field acting on the few free charges initially present into the device. The high potential difference accelerates those particles leading them to energies proper of excitation first, then ionization phenomena by impact with the neutral molecules of the filling gas. The electrical breakdown of the gas terminates with the avalanche formation of a plasma sheath over an insulator sleeve superposed to the inner electrode.
Such a highly survolted breakdown phenomena is under investigation by means of a Particle-In-Cell (PIC) which models the forming plasma as a complex system of free charges individually moving in a collisional (simulated by means of a Monte Carlo Collisional module, MCC) domain under the action of both the externally applied and the self-consistent electrical fields. The resulting es-cPIF code (an electrostatic-collisional Particle In cell for plasma Focus breakdown) is actually under development
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Generation-IV Nuclear Reactors Neutronic Design
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The continuous technological evolution and the growing experience in nuclear reactors design have leaded to the formalization of new features for the next generation nuclear reactors, according to the requirements claimed by the public opinion about nuclear energy production, concerning mainly safety and sustainability. Such requirements have been interiorized in the conceptualization of the so called Generation-IV specifications:
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high economics;
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enhanced safety;
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waste minimization;
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proliferation resistance.
Within this framework, the European commission has started a research program for the investigation of concrete solutions for each tipology of Gen-IV system. In particular, both the core conceptualization and the neutronic characterization of the European Lead-cooled Fast Reactor (ELFR) and of its demonstrator ALFRED (the Advanced Lead-cooled Fast Reactor European Demonstrator) are in charge to the core design laboratory of the Technical Unit for Reactor Safety and Fuel Cycle Methods of ENEA, headed in Bologna.
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Regional Scenarios for Nuclear Fuel Cycle Management
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The research in nuclear systems for the production of electrical energy needs not to underestimate the nuclear fuel cycle question. An efficient, wise and modern management of both incoming and outgoing fluxes is fundamental for a sustainable development of the energy politic in the very next future, as well as a detailed isotopic characterization of the fuel storages.
The research activity in fuel cycle scenarios, therefore, is devoted to the study of the present reactors park and the simulation of several scenarios evolution for a concrete analysis of sustainable policies for nuclear energy.
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