CRISTIANO CIURLUINI

WORK EXPERIENCE

Dates (from – to) Apr. 2024 – ongoing
Types of contracts Researcher
Name and address of employer Sapienza University of Rome, Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, 244 – 00186 Rome
Principal subjects- occupational skills covered Thermal-hydraulic analyst in support of the design and safety analysis of advanced fission (GEN IV Liquid Metal Fast Reactors, Small Modular Reactors, etc.) and fusion (ITER, DEMO, ARC) reactors. Within the framework of EUROfusion Consortium, the research activities are focused on the WCLL (Water Cooled Lithium Lead) TBS (Test Blanket System), BB (Breeding Blanket) and BoP (Balance of Plant). Teaching duties are also included and mainly related to courses belonging to the master’s degree in Energy and Nuclear Engineering:
• Co-lecturer (with Prof. Gianfranco Caruso) of the course ‘Two-phase Thermal-Hydraulics’. Responsible for the section ‘Applications of Two-phase Thermal-Hydraulics’.
• Co-lecturer (with Prof. Massimo Frullini) of the course ‘Risk Analysis in Industrial Plants’.
• Guest Lecturer of the course ‘Nuclear Safety and Emergency Systems’, led by Prof. Fabio Giannetti. Responsible for the section ‘Introduction to RELAP5 system code’.
An additional course is delivered within the framework of the student formation program related to the PhD in ‘Energy and Environment’.
• Co-lecturer (with Prof. Fabio Giannetti) of the course ‘Numerical Simulation of Nuclear Systems’.

Dates (from – to) Nov. 2021 – Marz. 2024
Types of contracts Research Fellow
Name and address of employer Sapienza University of Rome, Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, 244 – 00186 Rome
Principal subjects- occupational skills covered Thermal-hydraulic analyst in support of the design and safety analysis of advanced fission (GEN IV Liquid Metal Fast Reactors, Small Modular Reactors, etc.) and fusion (ITER, DEMO, ARC) reactors. Guest Lecturer of the course ‘Nuclear Safety and Emergency Systems’, led by Prof. Fabio Giannetti and delivered as part of the master’s degree in Energy and Nuclear Engineering. Co-lecturer (with Prof. Fabio Giannetti) of the course ‘Numerical Simulation of Nuclear Systems’ for PhD students.

STUDIES AND ACADEMIC CAREER

Academic qualification - National Scientific Habilitation for Associate Professor, March 2025.

PhD - PhD in Energy and Environment – (excellent) at Sapienza University of Rome. Thesis: “Design and thermal-hydraulic transient analysis of primary cooling systems for tokamak fusion reactors”, Feb 2022

Master’s degree - Master’s degree in Energy and Nuclear Engineering – (110/110 cum laude) at Sapienza University of Rome. Thesis: “DEMO Primary Heat Transfer System and Balance of Plant: thermal hydraulic design and simulations using Relap-5 code”, Jan 2018.

Bachelor’s degree - Bachelor’s degree in Energy Engineering – (110/110 cum laude) at Sapienza University of Rome. Thesis: “Confronto tra i principali modelli di simulazione del fenomeno di esplosione di gas”, Oct 2015

OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION

Computer skills and competences
Operative System: Windows, Linux
Office Tools: Office package: Word, Excel, Power Point, Visio
Engineering tools: MATLAB (advanced), CAD (intermediate), Python (starter)
Nuclear Codes: RELAP5 (advanced), ATHLET. (starter)
Programming Language: Fortran (starter).
Tutoring Co-tutor of 6 PhD theses in ‘Energy and Environment’ (2024-ongoing) and 8 MS theses in ‘Energy and Nuclear Engineering’ (2021-ongoing).
Awards ENEN Ph.D. Award (Finalist) – European Nuclear Young Generation Forum 2023, 8-12 May, Krakow, Poland.

INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS

EUROfusion (FP8 & FP9) Contributions in the following Working Packages (WP): • Plant Level System Engineering, Design Integration and Physics Integration (WPPMI). • Work Package Balance of Plant (WPBoP). • Work Package Breeding Blanket (WPBB). Sizing activities and thermal-hydraulic simulations to support the conceptual design of ITER WCLL TBS, EU- DEMO WCLL BB and BoP and the new multipurpose experimental infrastructure, called W-HYDRA, planned to be built at ENEA Brasimone Research Centre.

IAEA Coordinate Research Projects - Participation in two IAEA CRPs: • I32011, Benchmark Analysis of FFTF Loss of Flow Without Scram Test, 2018-2022. • I31038, Benchmark of Transition from Forced to Natural Circulation Experiment with Heavy Liquid Metal Loop, 2022-2025.

OECD/NEA International Standard Problems - Participation in the WGAMA ISP-52, named ‘International Standard Problem on PKL experiment on Multiple SG U-tube rupture’, 2023-2025.

Horizon Euratom projects Participation in different European projects:
• Advanced Nuclear Safety Evaluation of Liquid Metal Using Systems project (ANSELMUS, 2022-2026, ID 101061185): its final purpose is contributing to the safety risk assessment for GEN IV Liquid Metal Fast Reactors. Contribution to Work Package 1, related to the development of a PIRT methodology to be applied during the LMFR design process.
• Safety Analysis of SMR with PAssive Mitigation strategies - Severe Accident (SASPAM-SA, 2022-2026, ID 101059853): the technical contribution is mainly focused on the In Vessel Melt Retention (IVMR) strategy developed for Light Water Reactors (LWR), that is an appealing solution for the mitigation of many Severe Accident (SA) scenarios.
• LEad fast reactor Safety design and TOols (LESTO, 2024-2028, ID 101166337). Contributions to: • support the development of a passive mitigation device for LFR and the related experimental setup (SIRIO). • post-test analyses of ATHENA facility (largest facility in Europe for research on LFR technology).
• Ensuring Assessment of Safety Innovations for SMR (EASI-SMR, 2024-2028, ID 101164810): the technical contribution is focused on performing system-level transient analysis to support the development and the performance evaluation of the main LW-SMR European concepts, i.e., French NUWARD and Finnish LDR-50.
ARC The Affordable, Robust and Compact (ARC) fusion reactor is developed by MIT spin-out Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), recently acquired by ENI S.p.A. From 2021, NERG of Sapienza University of Rome has started a collaboration with the nuclear fusion division of ENI S.p.A. Supervision of two PhD students: • design of the reactor BoP. • tritium related design issues.

PUBLICATIONS

Full list of pubblications is available here (SCOPUS Elsevier): https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=57206241723.