International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) praised the calculation results by AO VNIIAES (Russian Research Institute for Nuclear Power Plant Operation, the subsidiary of SJC Rosenergoatom and a part of Rosatom state corporation electricity division) that were carried out within the framework of international projects.

IAEA informed about this in its reports on the results of the international project “Use of three-dimensional thermohydraulic codes (CFD-codes) to support the design of new NPPs.”1

VNIIAES professionals have used computer codes for modeling that are used in the virtual digital NPP technology VVER (VDNPP, virtual digital nuclear power plant). This technology was put in industrial operation this year.

12 organizations from 9 countries participated in the project, including VNIIAES from Russia. Due to having no experimental data, the participants performed blind calculations regarding the spread of boron in the primary circuit of NPP as well as thermohydraulics of the flow in the square fuel assembly (FA). The FA had a Western design featuring ring fuel elements for innovative NPPs.

VNIIAES was second-best in calculation accuracy, after the results of calculations based on experimental data in modeling the spread of boron were compared. The results of modeling fuel assembly by VNIIAES rivaled those of its European counterparts. IAEA more than once stresses the achievements of VNIIAES scientists in its report as well as notes a high predictive strength of the set of instruments they developed, along with their own high level of competence.

“The results of the precision international experiments will be used for verification of codes included in the VDNPP, which will allow to raise accuracy level and predictive power of calculations,” the principal investigator at VNIIAES Sergey Solovyov noted.