TY - JOUR
T1 - Impact of fresh fuel loading management in fuel cycle simulators
T2 - A functionality isolation test
AU - Thiolliere, Nicolas
AU - Doligez, Xavier
AU - Halasz, Mate
AU - Krivtchik, Guillaume
AU - Merino Rodriguez, Ivan
AU - Mouginot, Baptiste
AU - Villacorta Skarbeli, Aris
AU - Hernandez Solis, Augusto
AU - Álvarez-Velarde, Francisco
AU - Courtin, Fanny
AU - Druenne, Hubert
AU - Ernoult, Maxence
AU - Huff, Kathryn
AU - Sziebert, M.
AU - Vermeeren, B.
AU - Wilson, Paul
N1 - Score=10
PY - 2022/6
Y1 - 2022/6
N2 - Fuel cycle simulator development started many years ago by several research and engineering institutions or consulting firms for a wide range of applications. To improve confidence in the results, institutions may be tempted to increase the complexity of their software even if this complexity might not be necessary. On the other hand, some simulators may be used outside their range of validity when used in very specific applications. The FIT (Functionality Isolation Test) project is an international effort devoted to improve the confidence in the data produced by fuel cycle simulation tools. The scientific goal is to determine the optimum level of detail a fuel cycle simulator needs according to the type of study and the required confidence level. The project relies on a wide variety of fuel cycle simulators with a large range of complexity levels. The FIT project consists of isolating the impact of one targeted functionality on fuel cycle simulations. The impact of the functionality is assessed using a set of simple basic exercises specifically designed for this purpose, called ”functionality isolation.” The present work focuses on the impact on simulation results of using a fuel loading model (a relation that links the stock isotopic composition with the fresh fuel fabrication according to the reactor requirements) or a fixed fraction approach (the fresh fuel fissile fraction is fixed and does not depend on the stock isotopic composition). The paper first presents the FIT project. The exercise design is described and results show that using a fuel loading model approach has an important impact on fuel cycle outputs under certain conditions that are described. This result is reinforced by the fact that all fuel cycle simulators used in this exercise provide similar conclusions
AB - Fuel cycle simulator development started many years ago by several research and engineering institutions or consulting firms for a wide range of applications. To improve confidence in the results, institutions may be tempted to increase the complexity of their software even if this complexity might not be necessary. On the other hand, some simulators may be used outside their range of validity when used in very specific applications. The FIT (Functionality Isolation Test) project is an international effort devoted to improve the confidence in the data produced by fuel cycle simulation tools. The scientific goal is to determine the optimum level of detail a fuel cycle simulator needs according to the type of study and the required confidence level. The project relies on a wide variety of fuel cycle simulators with a large range of complexity levels. The FIT project consists of isolating the impact of one targeted functionality on fuel cycle simulations. The impact of the functionality is assessed using a set of simple basic exercises specifically designed for this purpose, called ”functionality isolation.” The present work focuses on the impact on simulation results of using a fuel loading model (a relation that links the stock isotopic composition with the fresh fuel fabrication according to the reactor requirements) or a fixed fraction approach (the fresh fuel fissile fraction is fixed and does not depend on the stock isotopic composition). The paper first presents the FIT project. The exercise design is described and results show that using a fuel loading model approach has an important impact on fuel cycle outputs under certain conditions that are described. This result is reinforced by the fact that all fuel cycle simulators used in this exercise provide similar conclusions
KW - Fuel cycle simulators
KW - Fuel loading models
KW - Pressurized water reactors
KW - odium fast reactors
KW - FIT project
U2 - 10.1016/j.nucengdes.2022.111748
DO - 10.1016/j.nucengdes.2022.111748
M3 - Article
SN - 0029-5493
VL - 392
JO - Nuclear Engineering and Design
JF - Nuclear Engineering and Design
M1 - 111748
ER -