Electromagnetic Pumps For Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactors

Combine electromagnetics and fluid mechanics to make a solid state pump for advanced nuclear reactors

What you'll learn

Discover how sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs) can fight climate change with advanced nuclear technology

Understand how Electromagnetic Pumps empower safety improvements in sodium-cooled fast reactors

Compare the advantages and challenges of different EM Pump Designs

Learn how researchers study EM Pumps with fluid, electromagnetic, and circuit simulations

Create your own sketch or 3D model of an EM Pump to show off at a student presentation, homework report, or professional conference,

Requirements

Undergraduate coursework in Electromagnetics and Fluid Mechanics. Topics will be briefly reviewed before diving into EM Pump design.

Undergraduate coursework in Electronic Circuits. Equivalent circuit models will be discussed in the readings.

Comfort with scientific programming and numerical methods. No programming is done in this course, but programming concepts will be discussed.

University mathematics from Calculus through Differential Equations. Equations will be found in readings of academic publications.

Description

Come discover the latest weapon in our fight against climate change!Electromagnetic Pumps are a super cool technology that are used in sodium-cooled fast reactors, an advanced type of nuclear reactor gaining more attention as a viable option to fight climate change. The thumbnail for this course is a model of Experimental Breeder Reactor-2, an American-made sodium-cooled research reactor that used EM Pumps! That said, EM Pumps are still under-studied and need lots of attention and further development if they are going to make it into real power plants, and that's where you come in!What engineering disciplines should enroll?Any! My background is in Nuclear Engineering, and I've worked on this technology in industry with Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical, and Materials Engineers from many different schools and years of experience. EM Pumps are an interdisciplinary field that benefit from having many different perspectives influencing the design and operation of the pumps. Generally, if you've taken some classes in Fluid Mechanics, Electromagnetism, or Electrical Circuits, you'll have a strong foundation to build on in this course!How hard is this course?I've designed this course for graduate students and nuclear industry workers seeking an entry point into learning how EM Pump technology works. The lectures are kept casual, professional, and easy to understand as a refresher of basic electromagnetic and fluid mechanics taught at the undergraduate level. The assigned readings provided in this course are from international researchers and go into greater technical detail on modelling approaches, simulation software, and analytical results. Upper-level undergraduates are encouraged to take this course as well to explore EM Pumps as a topic to study for a capstone project or graduate studies.Where's the money in this technology?EM Pump engineers are being called for in many industries that process any fluid that conducts electricity - aluminum manufacturing, marine propulsion with salt water, nuclear fission reactors with sodium or lead coolants, and fusion power plants that use lead as shielding blankets for the reactor walls. American salaries for EM Pump engineers in the Nuclear Energy industry range from $80k/yr to $150k/yr depending on your experience! If you're already in one of these industries and you aren't using EM Pumps… you are going to be thrilled with what you find in this course! And if you are, this course will expose you to different modelling approaches researchers are using to continually improve EM Pump designs.Hope to see you learn with us!Disclaimer: No organizations mentioned in this video series have endorsed the contents of this series, nor does the lecturer claim to speak on official behalf of any organizations mentioned in this series.

Overview

Section 1: Introduction

Lecture 1 Course Welcome and Scope

Lecture 2 Application and Interest to Nuclear Technology

Lecture 3 Advantages over Mechanical (Centrifugal) Pumps

Lecture 4 Join the Nuclear Learning Community on Discord

Section 2: Review of Electromagnetics and Fluid Mechanics

Lecture 5 Maxwell's Equations

Lecture 6 Navier-Stokes Equations

Lecture 7 Numerical Methods and Commercial Software

Section 3: Electromagnetic Pump Anatomy

Lecture 8 Flat Linear Induction Pumps

Lecture 9 Annular Linear Induction Pumps

Lecture 10 Single Stator vs Double Stator

Section 4: Electromagnetic Pump Design

Lecture 11 Simulation - Single Physics vs Multi-Physics

Lecture 12 Equivalent Circuit Approach

Section 5: Current Industry Needs of EM Pumps

Lecture 13 Modelling and Simulation - Lack of Multiphysics Options

Lecture 14 Workforce Development - More SMEs Needed

Lecture 15 Course Closure and Thank You

Engineers of the following disciplines: Electrical, Mechanical, Chemical, Nuclear, Materials,Scientists and Engineers working on advanced nuclear reactor design,Scientists and Engineers working with molten metals, molten salt, or molten lead,Graduate students in STEM interested in advanced nuclear technology,Undergraduate students curious about studying advanced nuclear technology in graduate school