Zi Liang Tan

NEF CDT
Department of Engineering
University of Cambridge

Sponsor: Singapore Nuclear Research and Safety Initiative

Data assimilation for verification of dry cask storage

Dry storage casks are used for interim storage of spent fuel assemblies. This method is becoming increasingly important today, with two main reasons being slow progress on building geological disposal facilities and limited capacity of spent fuel pools for wet storage. However, dry storage casks can present proliferation concerns since it becomes difficult to verify the inventory once the cask is sealed.

On one hand, we can assume a particular cask loading and use radiation transport models to predict the flux outside of the cask. On the other hand, we can directly measure the flux experimentally. These two sources of data can be interpreted together for a better understanding of the system. My project investigates applying the mathematical tools of adjoint sensitivity analysis and data assimilation to this goal.

Today

Zi Liang is currently a research fellow at the Singapore Nuclear Research and Safety Initiative where he is working on fuel cycle modelling.