Software library PETSc contributes to R&D 100 award-winning nuclear reactor software
The PETSc software library, developed at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, played a key role in creating Griffin: A Reactor Physics Tool for Multiphysics Modeling and Simulation of Advanced Nuclear Reactors. Griffin was recently honored with a prestigious R&D 100 Award, which recognizes the year’s most innovative technologies.
Developed by researchers at Argonne and DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory, Griffin is a central tool in the U.S. effort to design advanced nuclear reactors. It helps scientists and engineers predict how different reactor designs, fuels and materials will perform — making future reactors safer and more cost-effective.
How PETSc fits in
Griffin is built on two major software platforms. One is MOOSE (Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment), which handles detailed simulations of nuclear reactors. MOOSE, in turn, uses PETSc (Portable, Extensible Toolkit for Scientific computing) to perform the complex mathematical calculations required for these simulations.
“PETSc provides a critical foundation,” said Barry Smith, a longtime PETSc developer at Argonne. “Griffin uses several PETSc features to model how materials change over time inside a reactor. For example, its advanced preconditioned Jacobian-free Newton Krylov solver runs on PETSc.”
A long history of impact
Smith noted that PETSc has over a 30-year history of providing high-performance solvers, enabling researchers to tackle some of the toughest computational challenges in science.
“We appreciate the support from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Scientific Computing Research program, which has helped make achievements like Griffin’s R&D 100 award possible,” Smith said.
To learn more about PETSc, visit petsc.org.