Nuclear Power & Reactor Applications

OMICRON supports and promotes secure, competitive, safe, and environmentally responsible technologies in nuclear energy development for the present and future energy needs of the U.S. OMICRON’s well-experienced engineering staff are at the technical forefront and have the expertise to ensure the safety of nuclear power plants and reactor facilities.

• Advanced Reactor Development: OMICRON's staff assisted Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) in developing the MELCOR-H2 computer code for hydrogen production using nuclear power and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Advanced Reactor Severe Accident Program (ARSAP) in providing reactor vendors with a fission product chemistry capability in advanced reactor applications. Our staff include those with substantial neutronic and radiation experience, which allowed OMICRON to provide support to SNL’s space nuclear reactor design work for a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) program as well as other small space/terrestrial nuclear reactor design projects.
• Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Reactor Licensing Support: Our engineers provided assistance to the NRC through National Laboratories in areas such as resolving generic safety issues (e.g., sump strainer blockage from loss-of-coolant accident [LOCA]-generated debris), performing cost-benefit analysis, developing regulatory analysis for proposed regulations, and reviewing new nuclear plant license applications. Our staff engineers have supported the preparation of dozens of NUREG/CR reports (NRC reports).
• Waste Management/Spent Fuel Support: OMICRON’s engineering staff provided research and licensing support for the DOE’s Yucca Mountain Repository Project. Our staff also assisted SNL/NRC in developing thermal hydraulics models for the vulnerability studies of terrorist attack scenarios in dry spent fuel storage casks using the MELCOR computer code.
• Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) Support: OMICRON’s engineering staff have developed and reviewed nuclear reactor PRAs, including individual plant examinations (IPEs). Our staff have experience in a number of PRA tools, including, among others, SAPHIRE, SETS, SANET, SABLE, FTAP, IMPORTANCE, MACCS2, SEATree, and LHS. Our staff supported NRC-sponsored nuclear plant vulnerability evaluations for a number of existing reactor plants with the use of PRA techniques.
• Plant Design/Operation Experience: A number of our engineers have extensive experience with naval reactor plants and commercial nuclear reactors, including reactor operation, plant design, construction, start-up, and nuclear safety documentation.
• Reactor Phenomenological Code Modeling and Application: OMICRON has extensive experience in the development and application of severe reactor accident computer codes, such as MELCOR, CONTAIN, TRAC, MACCS2, and MAAP. Our engineers provided assistance in interfacing iodine chemistry codes, such as IMPAIR, with the MAAP code to provide iodine capability for the Simplified Boiling Water Reactor and AP600 reactor designs. We assisted SNL in developing and enhancing the MELCOR and CONTAIN computer codes for NRC and DOE applications.