On November 29, China Institute of Atomic Energy（CIAE）inaugurated a key R & D project of the Ministry of Science and Technology: the development and demonstration application of the prototype system of a digital reactor.
The digital reactor, which is a virtual reactor that has been subjected to large-scale and high-precision simulation calculations, is a mirror image of the “exterior” and “interior” of the actual reactor under different operating conditions. The core of the numerical reactor is the knowledge and data accumulation of various physical process mechanisms of the reactor, New advanced analog computing technology, and large-scale parallel computing and data processing capabilities and technologies.
The project is a subproject of the “High Performance Computing” -the state key R & D project. Through the implementation of this project, CIAE will obtain a batch of high-precision simulation software results that can be matched with actual physical devices, and the software will form Virtual devices to enhance CIAE’s capability in reactor design and research and development of new materials to improve the economics and safety of reactor research and development.
CIAE will unite nine domestic institutions including Beijing University of Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences-Computer Network Information Center, CAS Institute of Computing Technology, Suzhou Nuclear Power Institute, State Nuclear Power Station Operation Service Technology Company, Hunan University, Jiangnan University, Xi’an Jiaotong University and Sun Yat-sen University , which are superior in Supercomputer and software engineering field, to complete independent development of five sets of software systems, such as core physics, thermal hydraulic, structural mechanics, fuel and material performance analysis, thus establishing the first E-class supercomputer virtual reactor prototype system (China Virtual Reactor).
*”E-class Supercomputer,” refers to the supercomputer with hundreds of billions of math operations per second; is recognized worldwide as “the crown of the supercomputer industry”; can provide a strong computing power for the follow-up numerical reactor engineering demonstration and scale promotion.
