USING VISTA FOR THE EVALUATION OF MOX FUEL TRENDS

摘要

The nuclear fuel cycle may be broadly defined as the set of processes and operations needed tornmanufacture nuclear fuels, to irradiate them in nuclear reactors and to treat and store them,rntemporarily or permanently, after irradiation. Several nuclear fuel cycles may be consideredrndepending on the type of reactor and the type of fuel used and whether or not the irradiated fuelrnwill be reprocessed. Since the early 80s, the IAEA has been collecting and analyzing informationrnon the nuclear fuel cycle. Much effort has been given to the development of a computerizedrndatabase system, the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Information System (NFCIS). This centralizedrninformation system is an international directory of civilian nuclear fuel cycle worldwide. Itsrnpurpose is to provide information to the IAEA and its Member States on existing and plannedrnnuclear fuel cycle facilities throughout the world. This task is accompanied by a new computerrntool, the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Simulation System, VISTA. VISTA is a computer model, which canrnbe applied to a given scenario portraying the history and future of nuclear power and its fuelrncycle, and generate results for the front-end as well as the back-end of the nuclear fuel cycle. Thisrnpaper presents the new results obtained by using VISTA, and includes a comparison to data takenrnfrom NFCIS.