Development of ARKADIA for the Innovation of Advanced Nuclear Reactor Design Process (Development of the design optimization support tool, ARKADIA-Design)

Abstract

Japan Atomic Energy Agency is developing an integrated evaluation tool as a design system named ARKADIA to achieve the innovative design of an advanced nuclear reactor with safety and economy for a sustainable carbon-free energy source. ARKADIA consists of three sub-systems: the Enhanced and AI-aided optimization System (EAS), the Virtual plant Life System (VLS), and the Knowledge Management System (KMS). In the first phase of development by 2023, ARKADIA-Design for design study, ARKADIA-Safety for safety assessment, and ARKADIA-KMS for knowledge-base are being developed individually. From 2024, they have been integrated into one system of ARKADIA within five years. This paper focuses on the ARKADIA-Design and the development status of the optimized design evaluation procedure, which is specified by the module combination, in the fields of the core and design and the plant structure design, as well as the maintenance schedule planning process are described as achievements in the first phase. In the evaluation procedures, the design optimization process using the Bayesian optimization algorithm to deliver the candidate of the optimized design specifications of the core or plant structure is implemented first and the performance evaluation process is done consecutively to confirm the performances of the core and the plant structure with the candidate specifications using numerical analysis methods with the coupling technology of the modules (numerical analysis codes) in VLS.

Keywords

• design optimization
• multi-level analysis
• coupled analysis
• core design
• plant structure design
• maintenance schedule planning