The application of Cyclus to fuel cycle transition analysis - 5061

As part of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) Fuel Cycle Options (FCO) campaign, a number of different software tools for computational nuclear fuel cycle simulation were used to model a transition scenario from the current to an advanced nuclear fuel cycle. A team of national laboratories conducted the modeling and analysis with different nuclear fuel cycle tools. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), working with the University of California, Berkeley evaluated CYCLUS as part of this effort. CYCLUS is an agent-based fuel cycle simulator that uses discrete models representing the physics and behavior of nuclear fuel cycle processes (i.e. mining, fuel fabrication, chemical processing, transmutation, reprocessing, etc.). In this study, the capability of CYCLUS to perform a transition analysis is demonstrated, and plans for future code development to directly support the FCO effort are discussed. (authors)