Multiscale Thermal-hydraulic analysis of the MARVEL micro-reactor using coupled MOOSE Subchannel (SCM) and SAM

Conference · Mon Sep 08 00:00:00 EDT 2025

OSTI ID:3024441

Kyriakopoulos, Vasileios ^[1]; Charlot, Lise ^[1]; Tano Retamales, Mauricio Eduardo ^[1]

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1. Idaho National Laboratory

MARVEL is a natural-convection-cooled sodium-potassium microreactor that is anticipated to generate 85 kilowatts of thermal energy. It will operate within Idaho National Laboratory’s Transient Reactor Test Facility and is being developed by the DOE Microreactor Program. MARVEL will be used to test microreactor applications, evaluate systems for remote monitoring, and develop autonomous control technologies. A thermal-hydraulic computational model of this facility is a valuable tool to study important transients and calculate the safety limits of the micro-reactor design. For this purpose, the authors have chosen to use a multiscale coupled simulation: SCM for modeling the reactor core and SAM for the reactor’s primary cooling system. SCM is MOOSE physics module for subchannel analysis, which was designed to model single-phase flows through liquid-metal cooled, wire-wrapped fuel pin sub-assemblies, ordered in a triangular lattice. The SCM code was modified to be able to model MARVEL’s unique geometry. SAM is a systems analysis module based on the MOOSE framework. It aims to provide fast-running, whole-plant transient analyses capability with improved-fidelity for various advanced reactor types. The coupling between the two SCM and SAM for MARVEL modeling is done implementing a domain over-lapping approach. The resulting coupled simulation can model transients such as reactor startup/shutdown and provide an intermediate fidelity picture of the temperature field and other variables, in the core. Results for the steady-state simulations are presented in the article as well as flow blockage transient.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE); USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-05ID14517
• OSTI ID: 3024441
• Report Number(s): INL/CON-24-81516
• Resource Type: Conference proceedings
• Conference Information: NURETH-21, Busan, Republic of Korea, 08/31/2025 - 09/05/2025
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

22 - GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
42 - ENGINEERING
97 - MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING
LMR
Marvel
Microreactors
MOOSE
SAM
SCM
SFR
Subchannel