Essential physics for fuel cycle modeling

textNuclear fuel cycles (NFC) are the collection of interconnected processes which generate electricity through nuclear power. Due to the high degree of coupling between components even in the simplest cycles, the need for a dynamic fuel cycle simulator and analysis framework arises. The work presented herein develops essential physics models of nuclear power reactors and incorporate them into a NFC simulation framework. First, a one-energy group reactor model is demonstrated. This essential physics model is then to simulate a sampling fuel cycles which are perturbations of well known base-case cycles. Because the NFC may now be simulated quickly, stochastically modeling many fuel cycle realizations dramatically expands the parameter space which may be analyzed. Finally, a multigroup reactor model which incorporates spectral changes as a function of burnup is presented to increase the fidelity of the original one-group reactor. These methods form a suite of modeling technologies which reach from the lowest levels (individual components) to the highest (inter-cycle comparisons). Prior to the development of this model suite, such broad-ranging analysis had been unrealistic to perform. The work here thus presents a new, multi-scale approach to fuel cycle system design.Mechanical Engineerin

Recyclable uranium options under the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership

This report serves to define and compare the options for the recycling of uranium in the United States nuclear fuel cycle. The merits of the options are assessed based on cost and their potential for waste mitigation. Recyclable Uranium (RU) usage is motivated by the desire to reduce the quantity of nuclear material that ultimately goes into a deep geologic repository. To recover additional energy from the uranium the US lead Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) is presented as the framework in which RU recycling would take place. The primary purpose of this document is to develop a methodology that allows for fast fuel cycle economic and material balance calculations with regards to various RU scenarios. Two main RU options are presented in great detail. The first is the direct enrichment of RU to obtain a new, usable fuel. The second method blends normal low enriched uranium (LEU) with RU to create a fuel form. Both options are compared with the currently proposed option under GNEP of simply disposing of RU. Mass flows and fuel cycle costs are computed for all options. The major finding of this report is that the direct disposal of RU is comparable in price to the blending option but that the RU enrichment option is significantly less expensive than both of the others. These results only are as strong as the unit fuel cycle costs on which they are based, which for RU enrichment may be unintentionally depressed due to a lack of data. Furthermore, blending offers a method of recycling uranium from light water reactor (LWR) spent fuel at nearly the rate it is generated. RU enrichment will always have a tails stream that must be treated as waste.Mechanical Engineerin

Cyclus: Next Generation Fuel Cycle Simulator

<p>First Cyclus presentation at the FCO Quarterky Meeting 2014 Q4.  Dec. 16th, 2014.</p

Polyphemus v0.1

<p>Polyphemus is a continuous integration tool that front-ends to GitHub et al. and backends to BaTLaB. This fills a similar role to that of Travis-CI or the GitHub plugin for Jenkins. However, BaTLab has a wider vareity of machines than Travis-CI and is cheaper (free) than running your own machines with Jenkins.</p