Dr. Ramon Yoshiura is a Computational Scientist supporting system development and validation for integrated energy systems, test reactors, and nuclear fuel qualification efforts including light-water reactor, liquid-metal cooled fast reactor, and high temperature gas-cooled reactor type power plants based on scaling methodologies such as Dynamical System Scaling (DSS) and Hierarchical Two-Tiered Scaling (H2TS). Under the Advanced Thermal Hydraulic Research Laboratory (ATHRL) in Oregon State University for 8-years, he has participated in maintenance, training, operation, and post-experiment data analysis for the Multi-Application Small Light Water Reactor (MASLWR) and NuScale Integral System Test (NIST-1) facility. As a FY2016 Integrated University Program (IUP) Fellowship recipient, he has conducted thermal hydraulic analyses to NIST-1’s Containment Vessel determining the wall heat loss and collaborated with the Advanced Fuels Campaign (AFC) at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to establish system scaling framework for metallic nuclear fuels.

As acting Postdoctoral Researcher for the Integrated Energy and Market Analysis Department in Idaho National Laboratory (INL), he is the system scaling work-package manager and leads scaling activities for the Dynamic Energy Transport and Integration Laboratory (DETAIL) under the Integrated Energy System (IES) program and other collaborating test facilities. The objective is to establish the scaling framework for DETAIL in preparation for IES demonstrations with internal (e.g., MARVEL) and external facilities (e.g., NuScale Power). These capabilities support the activities to expand the role nuclear energy to supply energy to various industrial, transportation and energy storage applications by enabling connections among facilities of different scales which adheres to INL mission to demonstrate innovative nuclear energy solutions and its associated clean energy options. Other than his responsibility to organize this workpackage, his specific activities in this project have been; 1) Determining the governing equations of each system in DETAIL, 2) Identifying the associated Figure of Merits (FOM), 3) Conducting scaling validation via systems code, and 4) Scoping and organizing opportunities with industry partners for future collaboration with IES. Most recently, he was appointed as a committee member for the Nuclear Scaling and Applications Workshop (NuSAW) conference and is planned to give a presentation based on IES efforts and the application of scaling between August 1^st – August 3^rd 2023 during the event in front of potential industry partners such as NuScale Power, TerraPower, Westinghouse, Kairos Power, X-energy, Holtec, and other national laboratories and universities. This possess a major opportunity not only to convey current activities but more importantly to understand what validation and verification (V&V) and what experiments they need in relation to demonstration and scaling (all types of scaling: component scaling, process scaling, etc.).

He is also involved in the Accelerated Technology Development Through New Extrapolation and Validation (21A1050-014FP) Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project. This LDRD aims to address the similarity between experimental efforts and the full-scale application by using numerical uncertainty quantification and propagation methods to reduce reliance on traditional scaling theory involving expert judgement which coincides with INL initiatives to develop transformational approaches to accelerate nuclear research, development, and demonstration (RD&D). As one of the selected methods were DSS, he leads the efforts to; 1) implement DSS methodology to the Risk Analysis and Virtual Environment (RAVEN) code, 2) Investigates the applicability of DSS towards the uncertainty quantification based on data feedback, and 3) Expands DSS capabilities to calibrate either simulation or experimental inputs to improve applicability to full-scale applications based on Bayesian Inference determined uncertainty.