High fidelity nuclear energy system optimization towards an environmentally benign, sustainable, and secure energy source.

Abstract

Approved for public release; further dissemination unlimited. 2Issued by S andia N ational Laboratories, operated for the U nited States D epartment o f E nergy b y Sandia Corporation. NOTICE:This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. N either t he U nited S tates Government, n or an y a gency t hereof, n or an y o f their e mployees, nor a ny of t heir c ontractors, s ubcontractors, or t heir e mployees, m ake an y warranty, e xpress or i mplied, or a ssume a ny l egal l iability or responsibility for t he a ccuracy, completeness, or us efulness of a ny i nformation, a pparatus, pr oduct, or process di sclosed, or represent t hat its us e would not infringe pr ivately owned r ights. R eference h erein t o an y s pecific commercial p roduct, p rocess, o r s ervice b y t rade n ame, t rademark, m anufacturer, o r o therwise, does not ne cessarily c onstitute or i mply i ts e ndorsement, r ecommendation, or f avoring b y t he United States Government, any agency thereof, or any of their contractors or subcontractors. T he views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government, any agency thereof, or any of their contractors.Printed i n the U nited S tates o f America. This r eport has b een r eproduced d irectly from t he b est available copy. AbstractA new hi gh-fidelity i ntegrated s ystem m ethod a nd a nalysis approach w as de veloped a nd implemented f or c onsistent a nd c omprehensive evaluations of a dvanced f uel c ycles l eading t o minimized T ransuranic ( TRU) inventories. T he method ha s be en i mplemented i n a de veloped code system integrating capabilities of Monte Carlo N -Particle Extended (MCNPX) for highfidelity fuel cycle component simulations.In this report, a Nuclear Energy System (NES) configuration was developed to take advantage of used fuel r ecycling and t ransmutation capabilities i n waste m anagement s cenarios l eading t o minimized TRU waste inventories, long-term activities, and radiotoxicities. The reactor systems and f uel cycle components t hat m ake up the NES w ere s elected f or t heir abi lity t o perform i n tandem to produce clean, safe, and dependable energy in an environmentally conscious manner. The di versity i n performance and spectral ch aracteristics w ere us ed to enhance T RU w aste elimination while e fficiently ut ilizing ur anium resources a nd p roviding a n a bundant energy source.A computational modeling approach was developed for integrating the individual models of the NES. A general approach was ut ilized allowing for t he Integrated S ystem M odel ( ISM) t o be modified in order to provide s imulation for ot her s ystems w ith similar a ttributes. B y ut ilizing this approach, the ISM is capable of performing system evaluations under many different design parameter opt ions. A dditionally, t he p redictive capabilities of the ISM a nd its c omputational time e fficiency a llow f or s ystem s ensitivity/uncertainty a nalysis a nd the impl...