About
The Xe-100 is a 200MWt Advanced Pebble Bed Reactor that will be deployed in Washington State in the 2028 timeframe with the support of the US DOE Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program. The Xe-100 has been designed and optimized throughout it’s design lifecycle using STAR-CCM+ as the primary thermo dynamics analysis tool. This webinar will provide an overview of how early simulation of the design has informed the design team to enable optimization of the design and various system components to meet economic goals and safety requirements.

The Xe-100 design makes use of passive safety features to shut the reactor down and to ensure that decay heat can be removed through passive means. Modelling of the reactor pebble bed core and associated graphite core structures, reactor pressure vessel and reactor cavity cooling system was made possible through the use of STAR-CCM+. Specific user coding was developed to represent the pebble bed thermal inertia and predict the maximum peak temperatures in the pebble fuel elements. Material properties also had to be modeled as a function of temperature, pressure and in some cases accumulated neutron fluence (dose).

STAR-CCM+ was also used to model may other systems such as the helium circulator, helical coil steam generator, spent fuel storage system, fuel handling system components and reactor cavity cooling system.
Agenda
  • What is the Xe-100 advanced reactor
  • How STAR-CCM+ has been used to design and optimize the Xe-100 reactor and powerplant systems
  • The benefits of design by analysis
Presenters
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Dr. Martin van Staden
Vice President Design / Xe-100 Program Manager, Xe-100 Commercial Reactor Development
Martin completed his degree in mechanical engineering at the then Potchefstroom University (South Africa) in 1990. He went on to complete a master’s degree in mechanical engineering specializing in computational fluid dynamics in 1994.

He started as a mechanical engineer at Eskom Lethabo power station in 1991. In 1993 he moved to Eskom's R&D facility in Rosherville where he was responsible for establishing a CFD simulation group, where he performed research and consulting work in the power generation environment. As part of the research effort in Eskom he enrolled for a D.Eng. at the University of Johannesburg (then RAU) which he completed in 2000. In August 1995 he left Eskom to start his own consulting company Aerotherm. He has since performed international consulting in optimization, design, development and fault finding analysis in many diverse industries ranging from power generation, aeronautics, nuclear and hydraulic design to chemical process work.

Martin was responsible for the PBMR reactor thermal & gas dynamic design and optimization as well as optimization of many other components and systems in the PBMR power plant from 1998 to 2005 after which he continued as a consultant to PBMR. During this time he was also responsible for defining and leading the design of the Heat Transfer Test Facility (HTTF) that was built and operated at North-West University in South Africa to provide key licensing input data for the heat removal path in the pebble bed reactor design.

In 2009 Martin and a previous PBMR colleague, Dr. Eben Mulder, started a private pebble bed reactor project using Thorium as a fuel instead of Uranium. In 2012 Steenkampskraal Thorium Limited (STL) invested in the project and appointed Martin as Chief Technical Director.

In 2013 project funding from the USA drew the project to the US where Martin was appointed as the Vice President of Engineering for the X-energy pebble bed reactor program where he currently oversees the design and development of the Xe-100 as Vice President – Xe-100 Program manager.
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Aaron Larson
Executive Editor, POWER magazine
Aaron Larson joined the POWER team in September 2013 as an associate editor and was named executive editor in 2017. Aaron has a bachelor’s degree in nuclear engineering technology and a master’s degree, specializing in finance. He spent 13 years in the U.S. Navy nuclear power program, advancing to Chief Petty Officer. He has worked at commercial nuclear, biomass, and coal-fired power plants, functioning in operations, maintenance, safety, financial, and management capacities. Aaron holds a Chief A Engineer boiler operator license in the state of Minnesota.
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