F4E presents Llevant, a breakthrough in nuclear analysis

The geometry of a fusion reactor is an intricate puzzle. Mapping it accurately is essential to predict how each part will behave when exposed to fusion’s intense neutron fluxes.  

Before running a simulation, nuclear analysts first inspect that their digital models reproduce the components’ shape and composition. This pre-check tends to be laborious, with heavy code files and long hours of processing. Fusion for Energy (F4E) has just made the job simpler, and faster.

Llevant is a new tool developed by F4E’s Engineering Analysis team. The software transforms text-based geometry descriptions into interactive 3D models in seconds. It allows engineers to explore components –and even a full reactor– from every angle, visualising properties like materials or density and detecting errors more easily.

The engine’s speed and geometric fidelity reveal a great potential. Originally designed for ITER, Llevant could serve more projects in fusion, nuclear fission, or other fields that rely on neutron transport simulations, including particle accelerators, medical diagnosis or oil and gas exploration. In this spirit, F4E plans to release Llevant as open-source software for the community to exploit and adapt.

“It is a gamechanger for nuclear analysis. Before, we had to run a code and wait for it to render overnight, in 2D cross-sections. Llevant now processes the data instantly and displays it in a user-friendly way. A tool with this capacity can optimise workflows and increase quality assurance capacity across the industry,” claims Álvaro Cubí, nuclear engineer at F4E and developer of Llevant.

The key to this breakthrough may come as little surprise: artificial intelligence. Programming a tool of this complexity from scratch could take years, the developers explain. With the help of AI, the F4E team did it in weeks. The resulting software is ready to be used in neutronics analysis, as it is compatible with Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP), a widely used code to simulate neutron and radiation transport.

F4E will present Llevant to experts in European industry and laboratories at the upcoming F4E Neutronics Workshop in Barcelona.