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The Center for Advanced Modeling and Simulation (CAMS) will support the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) goal of becoming the preeminent national nuclear energy laboratory with synergetic world-class multi-program capabilities. The Center will provide the best possible human resources, hardware, software, communication and collaborations. It will enable the use of state of the art computational tools in the development of advanced energy systems-particularly advanced nuclear energy systems such as the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) and the Fourth Generation Nuclear Plant (Gen IV).

The Center will initially focus on four modeling and simulation themes that are important to advance energy systems. These themes are:

• Three-dimensional transport modeling (neutrons, radiation, heat and fluids).
• Behavior of solid and fluid material (based on computational material science) under extreme conditions and chemically aggressive environments.
• Design and layout of instrumentation and control systems (reactor control rooms and monitoring systems of the future).
• Implementation of the appropriate computing infrastructure (hardware and software), to support research and engineering throughout INL.

These initial themes were developed through discussion with the planned users of the Center and were viewed as critical to enabling INL's primary nuclear mission. These areas also support a broader set of laboratory activities in the National Security and Science and Technology.

Initially, the Center will use existing INL computing resources through a partnership with the INL Information Technology Directorate. As the Center evolves and its computing needs grow, specialized computing and visualization resources will be defined and added. CAMS will draw upon other computing capabilities within the DOE laboratory family through a "Hub-Node" model. The Center will also serve as the focal point for the INL modeling and simulation community by defining High Performance Computing needs (through users councils and workshops). INL's Information Technology directorate will support these needs by maintaining and administering the computing infrastructure.

It is envisioned that CAMS will have a core of dedicated scientific staff with modeling and simulation expertise. This staff will provide science and engineering assistance to other INL technical staff that use the Center and will have other affiliated technical staff that retain their organizational links with functional organizations-such as the material science, physics, or chemistry departments. These affiliated staff will serve as subject matter experts in critical technical fields.

The Center will explore the concept of developing computer codes as large-scale scientific resources and making the codes available in a "user facility" format. This concept is particularly appealing in the area of high end parallel computing. In many cases, individual research groups or consortia develop complex codes, but are unable to support the maintenance, documentation, and evolution of those codes. For the general community interested in implementing this model, the Center would be the repository for a variety of codes that can be blended together into a suite of software applications.

Beyond developing new codes that address unsolved problems, CAMS will play a key role in providing standard, validated scientific and engineering codes needed for everyday use within INL, including those commercially available. The creation of this "INL Toolbox" will complement the new code development activities previously described.

CAMS is co-located in the Center for Advanced Energy Studies (CAES) and the INL. This will enhance university collaborations, and will provide an academically oriented venue where students, faculty, and laboratory staff can work on problems of mutual interest and importance to the DOE.