Argonne National Lab + Nuclear Simulations

A quick glance at some nuclear news showed this:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-12/dnl-ama121808.php

Basically, the Blue Gene/P system at ANL allows for extremely large simulations to be run. For nuclear engineering, this is a valuable tool for investigating the coupled physics in reactors without actually doing an experiment.

I've seen talks by Dr. Siegel--one of the investigators--and he puts it best, saying essentially that large scale simulations will never replace experiments; however, they will help to us use the analytic tools available to zero in on those designs, parameters, etc. that would be most valuable to investigate experimentally.

A Promise to Myself!

As this term winds down, and as I find myself with more time, I want to commit to keeping up with what I had started roughly one year ago. I want both to keep up on relevant literature--as much as seems relevant beyond what I need to do for my work--and on relevant news. I'm going to shoot for two-three hours a week. We'll see...

Happy holidays--whichever they may be!