In the natural circulation pilot circuit, applied computational methods are tested.

IEN pursues several reactor engineering and safety research lines. Supporting these activities, it counts, besides the Argonauta research reactor, with thermo- hydraulic circuits and laboratories of nuclear measurement, high-performance computation, nuclear instrumentation and human-system interface. The facilities are used for the study, research and development of new nuclear techniques applications, irradiation and analysis of diverse samples, for nuclear reactor design and safety analysis, and for human resources formation, with the offer of under- graduate and graduate (Professional Master) courses.

Besides neutronics, structural mechanics, thermo-hydraulics, nuclear instrumentation and nuclear reactor safety analysis research, studies on evolutionary computing and on computational mechanics for the development of simulation and optimization methods applicable to several nuclear engineering problems are also performed. The recent implantation of the parallel computer laboratory represented a great impulse for these studies.

IEN also performs several technical activities in support of the licensing of the Angra dos Reis nuclear power plants.