A computer code that features the use of a directional effective therm
al conductivity in modeling natural convection in heat-generating pool
s has been developed to analyze heat transfer in such pools, which are
bounded from below by curved surfaces. Illustrative calculations pert
aining to two published experimental studies on convective heat transf
er in water pools with uniformly distributed volumetric energy sources
are carried out using the code. The water pools used in the two studi
es under consideration were cooled either from the top or from the bot
tom, but not from both. The utility as well as the limitations of the
effective thermal conductivity approach in the context of addressing t
he issue of melt-pool coolability is demonstrated by comparisons of ca
lculated results with the experimental data.