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NRC proposed rule for licensing reactors authorized by DOE, DOD
Nuclear reactor designs approved by the Department of Energy or Department of Defense could get streamlined pathways through the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s commercial licensing process should applicants wish to push the technology into the civilian sector.
A proposed rule introduced April 2 by the NRC would “improve NRC licensing review efficiency, where applicable, by explicitly establishing by regulation an additional means for reactor applicants to demonstrate the safety functions of their reactor designs, and thus, would contribute to the safe and secure use and deployment of civilian nuclear energy technologies.”
Steven E. Skutnik, Man-Sung Yim
Nuclear Technology | Volume 179 | Number 3 | September 2012 | Pages 374-381
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT12-A14169
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The effect of simplifications in nuclear fuel depletion analysis as well as the effect of cross-section uncertainties were evaluated as to their impact upon material attractiveness for weapons diversion purposes. The effect of simplified depletion models for material attractiveness evaluation was evaluated through a comparison of pressurized water reactor fuel for several benchmark cases, using experimentally measured values along with a two-dimensional lattice physics model (TRITON) and a point depletion model (ORIGEN-S). Simplifications such as the use of the ORIGEN-S depletion libraries and assumptions of homogeneous core enrichment were found to have a negligible impact on material attractiveness evaluation, particularly relative to uncertainties in experimental measurements; additionally, simplified irradiation power histories do not introduce unacceptable errors into the attractiveness evaluation. Finally, the overall sensitivity of material attractiveness and associated uncertainty was found to be greater for transuranic mixtures compared to plutonium as a function of both burnup and decay time; however, associated uncertainties are generally small and not prohibitive to material attractiveness discrimination. As a result, the use of simplified depletion models such as ORIGEN-S appears to be well justified for use in material attractiveness evaluation for proliferation resistance studies.