A new M.Sc. student is joining our group these days – Ella Israeli. Ella graduated her B.Sc. in Mathematics and Philosophy at BGU in 2013 and has been accepted as an M.Sc. student in the Unit of Nuclear Engineering at BGU starting Oct. 2014.
Under the supervision of Dr. Erez Gilad from the Unit of Nuclear Engineering and Prof. Moshe Sipper from the Department of Computer Science at BGU, Ella will study the use and implementation of evolutionary algorithms (such as genetic algorithms, particle swarm optimization, etc.) for solving the optimization problems of fuel assemblies loading patterns in the reactor core. This optimization problem is characterized by a huge (computationally prohibitive) search space, and is a multi-objective, non-linear, non-convex, NP-hard combinatorial problem.
This study will focus on multi-cycle or fuel-batch optimization, in addition to optimization of control rods and burnable poison positioning in the core. We intend to implement improved genetic algorithms by using state-of-the-art selection and cross-over operators. Furthermore, we will study the implementation of multi-objective and co-evolutionary genetic algorithms for this problem and apply genetic programming and steady-state algorithms if necessary. Finally, the developed computational tools will be integrated into DYN3D as in-core fuel management module.