On the 29th and 30th of August, 2024, Prof. Hyoung Kyu Cho and two of his colleagues from the Department of Nuclear Engineering, Seoul Nation University (SNU), South Korea visited INET at the invitation of Prof. Wang haitao, Deputy Director of INET. Dr. Sun Jun, Head of the Division of Reactor Physics, Thermal Hydraulics, and System Simulation of INET, extended a warm welcome to SNU professors and hosted academic exchange meetings, focused on nuclear thermal hydraulics and nuclear fuels. Besides SNU professors, eighteen faculty and staff members of INET participated in the meetings.

During the meetings with INET specialists, Dr. Eung Soo Kim, professor of SNU, introduced the Nuclear Engineering Department of Seoul National University, and gave a presentation on the particle-based multi-physics modeling framework, highlighting its applications in nuclear safety simulations, such as modeling core spread, concrete fracture, and radioactive dispersion. Prof. Hyoung Kyu Cho shared research progress on three new types of nuclear reactors, including floating nuclear power plants (FNPPs), heat pipe-cooled microreactors, and megawatt reactors, focused on experimental and simulation studies about critical heat flux (CHF). Dr. You Ho Lee, associate professor of SNU, introduced the research activities carried out by the Nuclear Fuel and Safety Laboratory of SNU.

INET experts also delivered some presentations for the exchange. Dr. Sun Jun gave a brief introduction of INET and HTGR technology. He also presented the research activities carried out by his division. Dr. Liu Malin, Deputy Head of the Division of New Materials, introduced the R&D history, preparation process and irradiation experiments of HTGR nuclear fuel elements. Dr. Gui Nan, Head of the Division of Thermal Hydraulics, provided an overview of the achievements in numerical simulation and experimental investigations in pebble flow and heat transfer. Some other presentations were also given on fuels, pebble bed flow & heat transfer, and applications of HTGR, as well as efficient simultaneous solution method for multi-physics, multi-scale, multi-component coupled system of HTGR.

The exchange meetings are fruitful and both sides expressed their mutual interest in further exchange and cooperation.

SNU professors also toured the HTR-PM testing facilities and a simulator at the INET research base.