- Email: [email protected]
Introduction to the Festschrift honoring the 70th Birthday of Professor Bal Raj Sehgal
Nuclear Engineering and Design 236 (2006) 1939–1940
Editorial
Introduction to the Festschrift honoring the 70th Birthday of Professor Bal Raj Sehgal
In 2003, Dr. Bal Raj Sehgal celebrated his 70th birthday. By that time, Dr. Sehgal has had a 42 years distinguished career, through his involvement in R&D at two major US national laboratories, the Electric Power Research Institute and four universities. With this Festschrift edition of the Journal Nuclear Engineering & Design we honor Professor Bal Raj Sehgal, the outstanding contributor, admirable leader, renowned author and wonderful teacher in the science and technology of nuclear power safety. All papers invited and selected for this Volume address complex phenomena of core debris and melt coolability during and after a severe nuclear reactor accident. This topical choice for the Festschrift is to reflect a challenging area that Dr. Sehgal has devoted his talent and efforts over the past two decades, an area in which he pioneered significant ideas, spearheaded and led lasting-impact international programs. As a young engineer, Bal Raj Sehgal started his career in the early days of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission in Bombay (1955) where he worked on the mechanical and shielding design of a pool type research reactor. The quest for knowledge brought him to the University of California, Berkeley. His first work on Boiling Heat Transfer and Jet Diffusion dates back to 1957, while first courses taught by him in Berkeley on Nuclear Engineering, Neutron Transport Theory and Reactor Experiments dated back to 1959–1960. Since then, both reactor thermal hydraulics and neutron kinetics, and their coupled nature remains at the center of Dr. Sehgal’s career. Over the years, Dr. Sehgal published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers and reports in wide-ranging topics in reactor thermal hydraulics, safety, physics and engineering. The major focus of Dr. Sehgal’s work has been the creation, testing and improvement of the capabilities (experiments, models, analysis codes and data) for predicting the behavior of nuclear reactor systems for steadystate, transient and accident conditions. This he has done over the years for both thermal and fast reactors of current and of advanced design. Prof. Sehgal has received many prestigious awards for his outstanding contributions to the profession. He was elected as the foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences in March 2003. He received the Glenn Seaborg 0029-5493/$ – see front matter © 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V. doi:10.1016/j.nucengdes.2006.04.029
Medal of the American Nuclear Society in November 2003, the Tommy Thompson Award of the Nuclear Installation Safety Division of the American Nuclear Society in June 2001, Technical Achievement Award for the Year 2000 of the Thermal Hydraulics Division of the American Nuclear Society and two Best Paper awards in June 2000, one each from the American Nuclear Society and the American Society of Mechanical Engineering. He also received a Technical Excellence Award from EPRI and a distinguished Scientist Award from the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. He was elected a Fellow member of the American Nuclear Society in 1983 and that of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in 1998. Prof. Sehgal is recognized as one of the top-tier nuclear scientists in the world, and his talents are used by many organizations dealing with nuclear power safety issues. It is not possible within this foreword to discuss all Dr. Sehgal’s achievements for he has been very versatile in his interests and contributions. We take the liberty to give selected highlights. At the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Dr. Sehgal was involved in a broad spectrum of nuclear engineering R&D. He made contributions in the development of ideas and evaluation of new LMFBR and advanced reactor designs. He wrote the first paper in the US on a low sodium void coefficient heterogeneous LMFBR core design, which spawned work resulting in such a design proposed for the Clinch River Breeder Reactor first core. He wrote papers and managed work on the high conversion ratio light water reactor designs, which are currently under investigation in Europe and Japan. At EPRI, Dr. Sehgal also devoted his considerable talents in improving the accuracy of predictions of the thermal-hydraulic behavior of light water reactor systems, during transients and accidents, through the development of methods, computer codes, and data. He, (1) managed the development of the RETRAN code for thermal-hydraulic analyses of LWR system transients, (2) initiated the development of the VIPRE and ATHOS codes for thermal-hydraulic analyses for the core and steam generator, respectively, and (3) initiated the development of the RASP integral code package for LWR core reload designs. He made personal contributions in validating these codes.
1940
Editorial / Nuclear Engineering and Design 236 (2006) 1939–1940
For the past 22 years, Dr. Sehgal has been active in the “Source Term and Severe Accident” areas. He was principal investigator for work performed by EPRI for the US Industry Degraded Core (IDCOR) Program in the areas of core heat-up, fission-product release and transport, and containment loadings. He managed many projects in the EPRI “Severe Accident” Program, e.g., those dealing with natural circulation tests at Westinghouse, ACE and MACE, the internationally sponsored programs in source term and coolability during corium-concrete interactions at ANL, BWR ATWS at G.E., core melt-down code development at SAIC, and several others dealing with containment loads, and fission-product release and transport. He published extensively on the various aspects of source term and severe accident issues. Dr. Sehgal has also made important contributions to graduate education at three of the leading universities in the US. While at Purdue University, he contributed to the design of the fast breeder blanket facility and taught courses in Fast Reactors and Nuclear Reactor Analysis. At MIT he developed and taught a course on Numerical Methods in Two-Phase Flow and conducted research in reactor transients and accidents. At the University of California, Berkeley, where Dr. Sehgal was appointed as Professor in Residence, he developed and taught courses on Thermal Aspects of Nuclear Reactors and Light Water Reactor Safety. The latter was videotaped and used for education at other institutions also. Dr. Sehgal was appointed Chair Professor of Nuclear Power Safety at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden in December, 1991. Prof. Sehgal initiated and developed a large research program on reactor safety, which is supported by the US, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland and the European Union. A laboratory was set up where (for a university laboratory) large scale experiments on severe accidents are performed. Research is also pursued on the Russian RBMK design (Chernobyl type) nuclear reactor plants to upgrade their safety performance, and on PWR boron dilution and the BWR stability issues. At present, the Nuclear Power Safety Laboratory at the Royal Institute of Technology is considered as one of the finest in the world, where very innovative and high quality research is performed. From January 1986, to June 1993, Dr. Sehgal served as the North American Executive Editor of the journal “Progress
in Nuclear Energy”, published by Pergamon Press, Oxford, England. This journal publishes review papers by invitation of the editor. He is, presently, on the Editorial Board of that journal. Prof. Sehgal has also been appointed to serve on the Editorial Board of the journal ‘Nuclear Engineering and Design’.Currently, Professor Sehgal serves as the Chairman of the Governing Board for the SARNET project, a Severe Accident Research Network of Excellence that includes 54 research and educational organizations from 25 European countries. Professor Sehgal also provides leadership in important work packages in other research projects such as EUROTRANS, an integrated project on Transmutation of Nuclear Waste. During his spare time, Professor Sehgal edits and writes chapters for a book on “LWR Severe Accidents”, which brings together a large body of knowledge generated in severe accident research, both in Europe and worldwide, much of it having been created under his leadership. It is always a pleasure to be with Raj and his beloved family. Professor Sehgal cares greatly for his students, and for all those who work with him. He patiently spent the time to nurture those who have the luck to be with him, teaching them the research, writing and presentation skills, and cultivating their courage to face new challenges. His students and trainees followed their Professor’s example, successfully serving in leading laboratories, universities and engineering companies all over the world. We all wish him well and a joyful time on his book projects, interrupted by trips to meetings and conferences where his monumental expertise and explorer’s spirit continue to engine the progress in the field. Nam Dinh Nuclear Power Safety, KTH-Stockholm Manfred B¨urger G. Lohnert ∗ Nuclear Engineering, IKE-Stuttgart ∗ Corresponding
author. E-mail address: [email protected] (G. Lohnert)
Editorial
Introduction to the Festschrift honoring the 70th Birthday of Professor Bal Raj Sehgal
In 2003, Dr. Bal Raj Sehgal celebrated his 70th birthday. By that time, Dr. Sehgal has had a 42 years distinguished career, through his involvement in R&D at two major US national laboratories, the Electric Power Research Institute and four universities. With this Festschrift edition of the Journal Nuclear Engineering & Design we honor Professor Bal Raj Sehgal, the outstanding contributor, admirable leader, renowned author and wonderful teacher in the science and technology of nuclear power safety. All papers invited and selected for this Volume address complex phenomena of core debris and melt coolability during and after a severe nuclear reactor accident. This topical choice for the Festschrift is to reflect a challenging area that Dr. Sehgal has devoted his talent and efforts over the past two decades, an area in which he pioneered significant ideas, spearheaded and led lasting-impact international programs. As a young engineer, Bal Raj Sehgal started his career in the early days of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission in Bombay (1955) where he worked on the mechanical and shielding design of a pool type research reactor. The quest for knowledge brought him to the University of California, Berkeley. His first work on Boiling Heat Transfer and Jet Diffusion dates back to 1957, while first courses taught by him in Berkeley on Nuclear Engineering, Neutron Transport Theory and Reactor Experiments dated back to 1959–1960. Since then, both reactor thermal hydraulics and neutron kinetics, and their coupled nature remains at the center of Dr. Sehgal’s career. Over the years, Dr. Sehgal published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers and reports in wide-ranging topics in reactor thermal hydraulics, safety, physics and engineering. The major focus of Dr. Sehgal’s work has been the creation, testing and improvement of the capabilities (experiments, models, analysis codes and data) for predicting the behavior of nuclear reactor systems for steadystate, transient and accident conditions. This he has done over the years for both thermal and fast reactors of current and of advanced design. Prof. Sehgal has received many prestigious awards for his outstanding contributions to the profession. He was elected as the foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences in March 2003. He received the Glenn Seaborg 0029-5493/$ – see front matter © 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V. doi:10.1016/j.nucengdes.2006.04.029
Medal of the American Nuclear Society in November 2003, the Tommy Thompson Award of the Nuclear Installation Safety Division of the American Nuclear Society in June 2001, Technical Achievement Award for the Year 2000 of the Thermal Hydraulics Division of the American Nuclear Society and two Best Paper awards in June 2000, one each from the American Nuclear Society and the American Society of Mechanical Engineering. He also received a Technical Excellence Award from EPRI and a distinguished Scientist Award from the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. He was elected a Fellow member of the American Nuclear Society in 1983 and that of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in 1998. Prof. Sehgal is recognized as one of the top-tier nuclear scientists in the world, and his talents are used by many organizations dealing with nuclear power safety issues. It is not possible within this foreword to discuss all Dr. Sehgal’s achievements for he has been very versatile in his interests and contributions. We take the liberty to give selected highlights. At the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Dr. Sehgal was involved in a broad spectrum of nuclear engineering R&D. He made contributions in the development of ideas and evaluation of new LMFBR and advanced reactor designs. He wrote the first paper in the US on a low sodium void coefficient heterogeneous LMFBR core design, which spawned work resulting in such a design proposed for the Clinch River Breeder Reactor first core. He wrote papers and managed work on the high conversion ratio light water reactor designs, which are currently under investigation in Europe and Japan. At EPRI, Dr. Sehgal also devoted his considerable talents in improving the accuracy of predictions of the thermal-hydraulic behavior of light water reactor systems, during transients and accidents, through the development of methods, computer codes, and data. He, (1) managed the development of the RETRAN code for thermal-hydraulic analyses of LWR system transients, (2) initiated the development of the VIPRE and ATHOS codes for thermal-hydraulic analyses for the core and steam generator, respectively, and (3) initiated the development of the RASP integral code package for LWR core reload designs. He made personal contributions in validating these codes.
1940
Editorial / Nuclear Engineering and Design 236 (2006) 1939–1940
For the past 22 years, Dr. Sehgal has been active in the “Source Term and Severe Accident” areas. He was principal investigator for work performed by EPRI for the US Industry Degraded Core (IDCOR) Program in the areas of core heat-up, fission-product release and transport, and containment loadings. He managed many projects in the EPRI “Severe Accident” Program, e.g., those dealing with natural circulation tests at Westinghouse, ACE and MACE, the internationally sponsored programs in source term and coolability during corium-concrete interactions at ANL, BWR ATWS at G.E., core melt-down code development at SAIC, and several others dealing with containment loads, and fission-product release and transport. He published extensively on the various aspects of source term and severe accident issues. Dr. Sehgal has also made important contributions to graduate education at three of the leading universities in the US. While at Purdue University, he contributed to the design of the fast breeder blanket facility and taught courses in Fast Reactors and Nuclear Reactor Analysis. At MIT he developed and taught a course on Numerical Methods in Two-Phase Flow and conducted research in reactor transients and accidents. At the University of California, Berkeley, where Dr. Sehgal was appointed as Professor in Residence, he developed and taught courses on Thermal Aspects of Nuclear Reactors and Light Water Reactor Safety. The latter was videotaped and used for education at other institutions also. Dr. Sehgal was appointed Chair Professor of Nuclear Power Safety at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden in December, 1991. Prof. Sehgal initiated and developed a large research program on reactor safety, which is supported by the US, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland and the European Union. A laboratory was set up where (for a university laboratory) large scale experiments on severe accidents are performed. Research is also pursued on the Russian RBMK design (Chernobyl type) nuclear reactor plants to upgrade their safety performance, and on PWR boron dilution and the BWR stability issues. At present, the Nuclear Power Safety Laboratory at the Royal Institute of Technology is considered as one of the finest in the world, where very innovative and high quality research is performed. From January 1986, to June 1993, Dr. Sehgal served as the North American Executive Editor of the journal “Progress
in Nuclear Energy”, published by Pergamon Press, Oxford, England. This journal publishes review papers by invitation of the editor. He is, presently, on the Editorial Board of that journal. Prof. Sehgal has also been appointed to serve on the Editorial Board of the journal ‘Nuclear Engineering and Design’.Currently, Professor Sehgal serves as the Chairman of the Governing Board for the SARNET project, a Severe Accident Research Network of Excellence that includes 54 research and educational organizations from 25 European countries. Professor Sehgal also provides leadership in important work packages in other research projects such as EUROTRANS, an integrated project on Transmutation of Nuclear Waste. During his spare time, Professor Sehgal edits and writes chapters for a book on “LWR Severe Accidents”, which brings together a large body of knowledge generated in severe accident research, both in Europe and worldwide, much of it having been created under his leadership. It is always a pleasure to be with Raj and his beloved family. Professor Sehgal cares greatly for his students, and for all those who work with him. He patiently spent the time to nurture those who have the luck to be with him, teaching them the research, writing and presentation skills, and cultivating their courage to face new challenges. His students and trainees followed their Professor’s example, successfully serving in leading laboratories, universities and engineering companies all over the world. We all wish him well and a joyful time on his book projects, interrupted by trips to meetings and conferences where his monumental expertise and explorer’s spirit continue to engine the progress in the field. Nam Dinh Nuclear Power Safety, KTH-Stockholm Manfred B¨urger G. Lohnert ∗ Nuclear Engineering, IKE-Stuttgart ∗ Corresponding
author. E-mail address: [email protected] (G. Lohnert)