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Impact on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Analysis of institutional authors

Fernandez-Cosials, KevinAuthorSanchez-Torrijos, JorgeAuthorQueral, CesarAuthor

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December 24, 2024
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TRACE system code benchmark of Station Blackout of a NuScale-like reactor and comparison with NuScale simulator

Publicated to: ANNALS OF NUCLEAR ENERGY. 213 111078- - 2025-04-01 213(), DOI: 10.1016/j.anucene.2024.111078

Authors:

Gorman, Michael; Fernandez-Cosials, Kevin; Sanchez-Torrijos, Jorge; Queral, Cesar; Hassan, Yassin A
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Affiliations

NFQ Advisory Serv, Vizcaya, Spain - Author
Texas A&M Univ, Dept Nucl Engn, 125 Spence St, College Stn, TX 77840 USA - Author
Univ Politecn Madrid, Alenza St-4, Madrid 28003, Spain - Author
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Abstract

System code modeling is the primary tool used for design and licensing and operator training of advanced reactor technologies. While system codes have been well validated for existing reactor technologies, caution should be taken with respect to system code modeling capabilities in advanced reactors which have significant phenomenological differences in their designs. Within the scope of advanced reactors, NuScale Power is the first vendor to have their reactor design approved by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. NuScale has developed a plant simulator which models a 12-unit NuScale plant capable of running operational or accident transients of each of the units. In an effort to assess the capabilities of the TRACE system code and perform a code benchmark, a NuScale-like reactor model was developed based on the Design Certificate Application. A Station-Blackout (SBO) accident scenario was modelled and compared with data obtained from the NuScale simulator. The SBO transient was run for a total of 8000 s and characteristics of the primary and secondary side systems were compared. Despite some differences attributed to the realistic approach of the simulator, the study found that the primary and secondary system characteristics over the course of the SBO transient showed reasonable agreement for trends and values observed in the NuScale simulator data and the TRACE model.
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Keywords

Affordable and clean energyNuscale power module (npm)Station-blackout (sbo)TracTrace

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal ANNALS OF NUCLEAR ENERGY due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2025, it was in position 9/41, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Nuclear Science & Technology.

Independientemente del impacto esperado determinado por el canal de difusión, es importante destacar el impacto real observado de la propia aportación.

Según las diferentes agencias de indexación, el número de citas acumuladas por esta publicación hasta la fecha 2026-04-24:

  • WoS: 4
  • Scopus: 4
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Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2026-04-24:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 7.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 7 (PlumX).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • Assignment of a Handle/URN as an identifier within the deposit in the Institutional Repository: https://oa.upm.es/94005/

As a result of the publication of the work in the institutional repository, statistical usage data has been obtained that reflects its impact. In terms of dissemination, we can state that, as of

  • Views: 26
  • Downloads: 8
Continuing with the social impact of the work, it is important to emphasize that, due to its content, it can be assigned to the area of interest of ODS 7 - Affordable and clean energy, with a probability of 51% according to the mBERT algorithm developed by Aurora University.
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Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: United States of America.

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Project objectives

Los objetivos perseguidos en esta aportación se centran en evaluar y comparar herramientas de modelado para reactores avanzados. Se plantean: analizar las capacidades del código de sistema TRACE para modelar un reactor tipo NuScale; desarrollar un modelo de reactor basado en la Design Certificate Application para realizar un benchmark; simular un escenario de accidente Station Blackout (SBO) durante 8000 segundos; comparar las características de los sistemas primario y secundario obtenidas con TRACE y el simulador oficial de NuScale; y determinar el grado de concordancia en tendencias y valores entre ambos modelos para validar la aplicabilidad de TRACE en este tipo de reactores.
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Most relevant results

El estudio evaluó el desempeño del código TRACE mediante un modelo de reactor similar al NuScale, centrado en un escenario de apagón total (SBO) simulado durante 8000 segundos. Los resultados más relevantes incluyen: la modelización detallada de las características del sistema primario y secundario durante el transitorio SBO; la comparación directa con datos del simulador oficial de NuScale, que representa una planta de 12 unidades; la observación de una concordancia razonable en las tendencias y valores entre el código TRACE y el simulador; la identificación de diferencias atribuibles al enfoque más realista del simulador; y la validación parcial del código TRACE para aplicaciones en reactores avanzados con diseños fenomenológicamente distintos.
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