The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s International Regulatory Development Partnership (IRDP) conducted a virtual workshop for Thailand’s nuclear regulatory authority, The Office of Atoms for Peace (OAP) entitled, “Overview of Computer Codes Used in the Regulatory Process.” Participants included staff from the NRC’s Offices of Nuclear Reactor Research (RES), Nuclear Security and Incident Response (NSIR) and International Programs (OIP), as well as experts from NRC contractor AdSTM. The workshop was conducted using a virtual platform (Zoom) in three-hour segments over seven separate days between May 10-19, 2021.
This workshop was developed to provide an overview of some of the computer codes used by the U.S. NRC in licensing, research, emergency response, risk-informed regulation, and generic issue resolution. AdSTM instructors David Squarer and Weidong He, and NRC staff from RES (Vered Shaffer, Andrew Nosek) and NSIR (Jeff Kowalczik), made presentations on eight separate computer codes: Best Estimate Fuel Performance Code (FRAPCON), Fuel Rod Analysis Program Transient (FRAPTRAN), Severe Accidents Consequence Code System (MACCS), MELCOR, Purdue Advanced Reactor Core Simulator (PARCS), Radiological Assessment System for Consequence Analysis (RASCAL), Systems Analysis Programs for Hands-on Integrated Reliability Evaluations (SAPHIRE), and TRAC/RELAP Advanced Computing Engine (TRACE). These computer codes were selected to cover a diverse spectrum of topics such as: fuel behavior, PRA/PSA, thermal-hydraulics, severe accident, consequences of severe accident, and reactor kinetics. The workshop was attended by participants representing Thailand/OAP; Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology; Suranaree University of Technology; and Chulalongkorn University.
The workshop participants were very engaged, asking questions and contributing significantly to the success of the workshop.