A nuclear engineer by training, Kara Godsey has found her work split between fusion and fission since joining Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 2019. Credit: ORNL
A nuclear engineer by training, Kara Godsey has found her work split between fusion and fission since joining Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 2019 as a member of the Radiation Transport Group in the Fusion and Fission Energy and Science Directorate.
“What I have found is that there is a beneficial crossover between fission and fusion here at the lab,” Godsey said. “The two build off each other.”
One of the best examples she has encountered involves the development of the ORNL-TN software package, a Monte Carlo radiation transport software suite, for efficient use in the larger and more complex models that often define fusion applications such as the ITER international fusion facility.
“Several years ago, developers in the Radiation Transport Group wrote ORNL-TN for use with ITER, which requires larger and considerably more complex models for radiation transport that really push the boundaries of traditional software capabilities,” Godsey said.
“This adaptation was then used as the basis for another ORNL-developed tool, HFIRCON, which is what powers simulations for evaluations of targets and isotope production at the High Flux Isotope Reactor. So this software advancement went from fission to fusion and back to fission.”
The researchers’ success at adapting an ORNL fission software platform to help solve challenges in fusion energy development builds on ORNL’s history of more than 75 years in fission and over 60 years in fusion. ~ Amy Reed
