https://www.vis.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/

Background
Recently Tokyo Electric Power Company has confirmed with direct inspection of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station that all three crippled units have experienced core meltdown, failure of the lower head and a certain amount of corium relocation on the top of the pedestal floor.
The current knowledge and modeling of corium cooling in the lower head is based on TMI-2 accident based research where large cooling existed on the top of the debris. It is expected that the phenomena associated with corium cooling in the lower head of Fukushima Daiichi might be considerably different. Recently JAEA/CLADS have performed experiments (LIVE-J1 and LIVE-J2) on prototypical scenario expected in Fukushima Daiichi NPPs where a mixture of liquid metals permeates a coarse particulate debris bed.

Objective of the project
The objective of this research is to validated existing thermal hydraulics codes (i.e. CFD and Severe Accident such as MELCOR codes) against the LIVE-J1 and LIVE-J2 tests. It is unlikely that the current SA codes will work properly against these experiments as they are currently based on completely different assumptions, such as the accident scenario of TMI-2. Hence, the natural outcome of the project would be the definition of a new modeling approach to be applied to SA codes in particular the MELCOR code. This project will be performed supported by Tokyo Electric Power Company in collaboration with Sandia National Laboratory, who is the owner and developer of the MELCOR code.
Contract period
The initial length of the project is 1 year from April 1st 2023, which is extendable up to a total of 3 years

Location
The location is at the University of Tokyo, Hongo campus, Tokyo, Japan

Required Skills
-Knowledge of thermal-hydraulics
-Knowledge and experience of Computational Fluid Dynamics
-Knowledge of two-phase flow
Additional Preferable Skills
-Knowledge of nuclear plant design and safety
-Knowledge of lumped parameter approach (e.g. MELCOR, RELAP/SCDAP, TRACE, ASTEC, etc…)

Monnthy salary around 300,000JPY and 12 salaries per year.

Application procedure
Application should be submitted by email before January 31st 2023, each application must include: an intro letter highlighting relevant experience and qualifications for the position, a curriculum vitae and the names and addresses of three or more references, and electronic copies of no more than three representative publications.