Greeting (2016)

Akemi Nishida (JAEA)

Akemi Nishida (Division chair in FY2016)

Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA)

Roles of computational science and technology and future expectations – Through the Activities in the Computational Science and Engineering Division –

This fiscal year, I had the honor of being appointed as the 15th Director of the Computer Science and Engineering Division, and therefore, I firmly decided to devote myself to contributing to the development of the division together with other members of the division. In this regard, I would like to ask you for your cooperation and support.

Fourteen years have passed since the Computational Science and Engineering Division was founded, and since then, its activities have been expanded from various perspectives in an attempt to make contribution to the development of computational science and technology in the nuclear sector. It was founded at the organization meeting held at the general assembly in the fall of 2002 (at Iwaki Meisei University) as a “division to weave many divisions of the Atomic Energy Society of Japan (warp yarn) with computational science and technology (weft yarn).” The division started its activities centering on the first director, Dr. Genki Yagawa. Generally speaking, the focus has been on the planning sessions at the fall assembly and the spring annual meeting, but we have also continued to make steady efforts at all times. For instance, we have launched various ad hoc committees for various activities since its foundation, including the Research Committee on the Methodologies for Evaluation of Computational Results, Research Committee on Large-Scale Numerical Simulation, Special Committee on Computational Science for Seismic Safety of Nuclear Facilities, Advisory Committee on Nuclear Codes, Research Committee on High-End Computing in Nuclear Systems, and Credibility of Nuclear Simulations WG. As you know, the activities of “Credibility of Nuclear Simulations WG” resulted in creating a “Guideline for Credibility Assessment of Nuclear Simulations: 2015(AESJ-SC-A008:2015) scheduled to be published in the near future. The “Doctor Forum,” held jointly with the Thermal-Hydraulics Division since 2003, was launched for helping young researchers who recently acquired their doctorate degrees succeed in their future research efforts by giving them opportunities for giving lectures and promoting mutual enlightenment and exchanging knowledge through discussions. Recently it was renamed as “Young Researcher Exchange Forum” and our planning team was also reorganized by appointing young staffers to continue its activities.

It’s been five years since the Tohoku-Pacific Ocean Earthquake struck in 2011. The situation revolving around the nuclear sector significantly differs before and after the earthquake, and the circumstances respecting this sector are still difficult. The scope of the response to natural disasters including earthquakes and tsunami is hard to predict, and there are various issues to resolve. Preparing suitable scenarios, understanding potential uncertainties, and making efforts to reduce all these negative factors are essential, and I believe, computational science and technology will play a significant role, because of their predictability for assessing various scenarios.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority has issued new regulations and guidelines for the last five years, especially for improving those for external events (external hazards). The “Assessment Guide for Tornado Effect on Nuclear Power Plants” issued in June 2013, “Assessment Guide for Airplane Collision involving Commercial Nuclear Power Plants” issued in September 2014 and other similar guides require organization concerned to evaluate effects of projectiles collision on nuclear facilities. Computational science and technology are also expected to prove their effectiveness in simulating this hazard. In consideration of these circumstances, we are planning to hold a session called “Numerical Analysis for Assessment of External Hazards” at the meeting in fall of this year held in Kurume, Fukuoka, Japan. Earthquakes have been addressed in the previous planning sessions, and for the planning session at the coming meeting, we are planning to invite experts to give lectures about simulations for evaluating these three events, namely, tsunami, tornado and aircraft collision. We hope as many people as possible should participate in this session and take part in the discussion about making use of computational science and technology.

Finally, I wish to extend my sincere gratitude to all the members for their long-lasting cooperation and would like to request your future cooperation in further development of this division.