Browsing by Subject "nuclear engineering"
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Item Coupling Interface for Physics-to-System Simulations(2012-11-02) Leimon, Michael 1985-A new interfacial code was developed to couple the reactor physics code PARCS/AGREE to the systems level code MELCOR, with a goal of enabling state- of-art transient event analysis for high temperature gas reactor designs. Following the completion of this new code, it was then demonstrated by running two different coupled simulations, one of which was a transient event. The resultant code is capable of coupling spatial power profiles, point kinetics information and transient reactivity values from PARCS/AGREE to MELCOR by means of input/output file manipulation. The coupling demonstrations were between PBMR400 models that were designed to have an equivalent core region nodalization to that which was used in the OECD/NEA PBMR400 benchmark, thus allowing for comparisons. The accessible coupled simulation output results as extracted from MELCOR appeared to be overly generalized. Even so, the axial profiles from the coupled steady-state demonstration were in good agreement with the axial profiles of other OECD/NEA participants. Conversely, the coupled transient simulations showed a suspect, maximum average nodal component temperature rise of approximately 0.4K from a 3+$ reactivity insertion.Item Improving Targeted Radionuclide Therapy Using Nuclear Nanotechnology(2013-05-03) Evans, Jordan AndrewThe objectives of this thesis are to produce radioactive antibody-conjugated gold nanoparticles to improve the efficacy of targeted radionuclide therapy for the treatment of cancer, and to demonstrate that this product can be produced at Texas A&M University. We have proposed a method for determining the distribution of radioactive nuclei per nanoparticle, which is critical for determining radiotherapeutic efficacy. Using the distribution of radioactive nuclei per nanoparticle, we have produced methods for calculating the radiative dose to tissue using nano-improved targeted radionuclide therapy, but more importantly we propose procedures to experimentally determine the efficacy of targeted radionuclide therapy improved by application of radioactive nanomaterials in combination with immunotherapy, nanomaterial cytotoxicity, and other cancer therapies such as chemotherapy. These methods can also be used to determine the efficacy of combinatory treatments as a function of time. Characterization of the antibody-nanoparticle attachment is critical; we have demonstrated successful antibody-nanoparticle conjugation using atomic force microscopy, dynamic light scattering, and agarose gel electrophoresis, providing more conclusive evidence of successful conjugation compared to flow cytometry. We provide a mathematical derivation from basic electron-transport principles which demonstrates the theoretical dosimetric advantages of applying radioactive nanomaterials to targeted radionuclide therapy. The general formulae can be applied to any tumor size, any radionuclide, and any pharmacokinetic nanoparticle distribution throughout the body, ultimately allowing a quick method of approximating the necessary activation time and treatment dosage parameters for a specific patient without burdensome Monte Carlo computational simulations. We further demonstrated that nano-TRT dosage to tumors should be considered as a function of radial position rather than average, as the dose across the tumor may be noticeably non-uniform causing some portions of the tumor to receive (potentially) significantly less dose than average.