New laboratory to enhance Naarea digital twin

French engineering group Assystem and micro-reactor developer Naarea have announced the creation of a joint laboratory, dedicated to exploring emerging and advanced digital technologies and integrating them into Naarea's digital twin.

Naarea - formally established in November 2021 - says its ultra-compact molten salt fast neutron reactor will use "the untapped potential of used radioactive materials, and thorium, unused mining waste". Once it develops the eXtra Small Modular Reactor (XSMR) design, the company intends to target applications in areas such as transportation, agriculture and smart buildings. Naarea says that, because of the compact size of its reactor and because there is no need for it to be grid-connected, the XSMR can "be deployed as close as possible to regions, to match energy demand as closely as possible and allow the control of security of supply, at the service of industries and communities". It expects the first units of XSMR - which can generate 80 MWt/40 MWe - to be produced by 2030.

In December 2021, Naarea announced it had signed a cooperation agreement with Assystem to build the XSMR. Under the agreement, Assystem is developing a digital twin of the reactor - an ecosystem of digital tools that incorporates 3D models and advanced simulation capabilities - to model and simulate its behaviour. This twin will enable rapid convergence towards the optimal design, provide critical elements for validating the design and enable the rapid launch of the construction of the physical prototype, Naarea said.

"In just 18 months, Naarea reached a key step in the development of its microreactor by finalising the first stage of the digital twin of its XAMR in partnership with Assystem," Naarea said. "Developed on Dassault Systèmes' 3DX platform, Naarea's digital twin centralises all of the data pertaining to the reactor, and will be used throughout the project's lifecycle, from its design through to operation and reprocessing."

Naarea and Assystem have now announced the creation of a joint laboratory that will aim to meet future challenges related to the development of Naarea's XAMR microreactor. It will bring together the technical and professional expertise of Naarea and Assystem, in collaboration with universities, research centres and public institutions.

"As digital technologies are constantly evolving, Naarea and Assystem decided to create a joint laboratory to evaluate, analyse and integrate all of the emerging technologies that could contribute to the deployment, optimisation and ongoing improvement of Naarea's XAMR digital twin, such as large language models, substitution models, the dynamic reliability of passive safety systems, and the Internet of Things," the partners said. "To do so, NAAREA and Assystem developed a five-year strategic roadmap in three areas: the integration stages for the main nodes of system tree structures; the main groups of processes to be integrated into the digital twin; and the main technological building blocks likely to be integrated into the digital twin."

The joint laboratory will be led by a strategic steering committee made up of Naarea's and Assystem's senior management, who will approve the roadmap and funding. A management committee will provide operational oversight for its R&D activities and may be assisted by Naarea's Scientific Board to guide the scientific and technological aspects of the laboratory.

"This joint laboratory for digital innovation, born of a proposal from Assystem's and Naarea's teams, aims to bring together their skills and expertise to explore the most promising digital technologies that could contribute to improving our digital twin," said Naarea founder and CEO Jean-Luc Alexandre. "Beyond the exceptional knowledge we'll gain from it, and state of the art digital technologies, this laboratory embodies the spirit of innovation that drives all of the teams involved in the design and development of our XAMR."

Christian Jeanneau, executive vice president International, Project Management & Digital at Assystem, added: "We are delighted to continue and expand our partnership with Naarea to contribute to the enrichment of their digital twin. Thanks to our expertise and the use of artificial intelligence, this joint laboratory represents a tremendous opportunity to innovate together. It will allow us to develop new solutions to continuously improve this large-scale project and address the energy challenges of the future."