Economic model benchmark for fuel cycle codes: ANICCA’s economic model results for benchmark with JAEA

The ANICCA code is a tool developed to simulate advanced fuel cycle scenarios. Recently, an economic module has been implemented in the code to be able to estimate the costs associated to the different fuel cycle scenario options. One of the key components of an economic calculation is the economics database used by the code, and the one currently implemented in ANICCA needs to be verified. Since these codes often contain simplified models for reactor systems, front-end and back-end fuel cycle facilities, it is important to assess the impact of these simplifications on the physical parameters of interest in the simulation. Moreover, these codes are often used for the modeling of the impact of future, advanced nuclear systems, thus uncertainties exist on input data. Being able to translate these uncertainties into economic terms can be of great help to the industry, since decision making is not only based on science but also on economics. Therefore the development of the economic module in ANICCA is of special relevance. In this report, a benchmark - defined in the framework of SCK CEN-JAEA collaboration - is presented and results are reported, with the objective of reaching a consensus on the references used for the calculation of costs in the different stages of the fuel cycle, and to verify that the economic models work properly. In future reports, a comparison between ANICCA and NMB economic modules will be performed, results from this scenario will be analyzed and sensitivities to economic model parameters will be studied.