Evaluating advanced fuel cycle proliferation resistance dynamics using isotopic characterization coupling

Abstract

A method for enhancing nuclear fuel cycle proliferation resistance (PR) assessment through the direct coupling of nuclear materials depletion and decay analysis is presented in this paper. This direct coupling of nuclear materials analysis with PR evaluation affords new avenues of PR evaluation, including the evaluation of the cycle-level sensitivity to factors such as reactor type, fuel enrichment, and fuel burnup, all of which result in changes to materials properties that cascade throughout the system. This analysis can be useful to identifying the conditions under which nuclear energy systems show a heightened PR sensitivity and warranted further characterization. This paper extends prior work in the coupling technique; in addition to making use of a more sophisticated material attractiveness evaluation and a stage weighting sensitive to the material mass flow of the system, further categories of systems are evaluated. A demonstration analysis is applied to three classes of fuel cycles across varying parameters: open cycles consisting of no actinide recycle, modified open cycles with limited actinide recycling, and fully closed cycles in which all actinides are recycled as fuel. While the Fuzzy Logic Barrier Model developed at North Carolina State University shall be used as a demonstration platform for this effort, this technique can be applied to enhance many models for fuel cycle PR assessment.