Trent University Materials Science Ph.D. candidate and nominee for a Governor-General’s Medal at this year’s convocation ceremonies, Dimitrios Kallikragas just received another honour – his research was recently featured as the cover story of a premier science journal.

The paper, written together with Dr. Igor Svishchev, Chemistry professor at Trent University, is based on Mr. Kallikragas master’s thesis. Properties of Aqueous Systems Relevant to the Supercritical Water Cooled Reactor via Molecular Dynamics Simulations, which has been published in AECL Nuclear Review, aims at providing molecular level insights into the behavior of supercritical water and select chemical species relevant to nuclear applications.

Supercritical water is the intended heat transfer fluid in the next generation Canada Deuterium Uranium reactors. The high operating temperatures and pressures of the supercritical power cycle create an extremely corrosive medium within the water-bearing components of the reactor. The harsh environment poses challenges in choosing appropriate design materials, and understanding the behaviour of supercritical water at the nanoscale within crevices of the passivation layer is needed for developing a control strategy to minimize corrosion. Molecular Dynamics simulation methods were seen to be an accurate and viable means of overcoming practical experimental challenges in studying the properties of supercritical systems.

AECL Nuclear Review, a Canadian nuclear science and technology journal that showcases innovative and important research in areas of CANDU Nuclear Technology, Nuclear Security, Hydrogen and Sustainable Energy, Advanced Materials and Environmental Sciences.

Mr. Kallikragas' work has been carried out in the Supercritical Water Research Laboratory in the Chemistry Department. His thesis supervisor, Prof. Igor Svishchev, is a recipient of a multi-year $ 620,000 grant on Generation 4 Energy Technologies, co-funded by the NSERC and AECL (recently renamed as CNL – Canadian Nuclear Laboratories). He says that Mr. Kallikragas' work is central to the R&D program to develop and deploy the next generation, supercritical power reactor and its hydrogen co-generation facilities.