On the extension of modern best-estimate plus uncertainy methodologies to future fast reactor and advanced fuel licensing - initial evaluation of issues
- Los Alamos National Laboratory
Closing the fuel cycle is the major technical challenge to expanding nuclear energy to meet the world's need for benign, environmentally safe electrical power. Closing the fuel cycle means getting the maximum amount of energy possible out of uranium fuel while in turn minimizing the amount of high-level waste that must be stored. DOE's Advance Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI) program addresses this challenge by recycling the transuranic (TRU) isotopes contained in spent nuclear fuel; recycling, in turn, minimizes the amount of high-level waste that would require storage in repositories. Developing new fuels and the plants that burn them is a lengthy and expensive process, typically spanning a period of two decades from concept to final licensing. A unique challenge to meeting the AFCI objectives in this area is that the experimental database is seriously incomplete. As such, using a traditional, heavily empirical approach to develop and qualify fuels and plant operation over the operational conditions of a AFCI plant will be very challenging, if not impossible, within the expected schedule and budgetary constraints. To address this concern AFCI has launched an advanced modeling and simulation (M&S) approach to revolutionize fuel development and fast reactor design. This new approach is predicated upon transferring the recent advances in computational sciences and computer technologies into the development of these program elements. The licensing process that has historically been used by the NRC for fuels qualification is based upon using a large body of experimental work to qualify and license a new fuel. If a modeling and simulation approach with more directed experimentation is to be considered as an alternative approach for licensing, then a framework needs to be developed that can be agreed to with the NRC early in the developmental process. The use of modeling and simulation as a means of demonstrating that a design can meet NRC requirements is not new and has precedence in the NRC. The method is generically referred to as a 'Best Estimate plus Uncertainty' approach (BE+U), since the goal of the methodology is to compare the model value (best estimate) plus any uncertainty to a figure of merit like cladding temperature. The challenges for extending the BE+U (1) method for fuel qualification for an Advanced Reactor Fuel are driven by: schedule, the need for data, the data sufficiency, the identification of important phenomenon, the process of validation (with focus on the multi-scale model), and the need to produce and extended best estimate plus uncertainty methodology. This paper examines these issues an offers up a proposed set of methods that extend the current BE+U methodology address most if not all of these challenges.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC52-06NA25396
- OSTI ID:
- 988330
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-09-02409; LA-UR-09-2409; TRN: US1006672
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 13th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics ; September 27, 2009 ; Kanazawa City, Japan
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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