The Nuclear Systems Analysis Department is committed to delivering world-class reactor physics, novel and innovative solutions for advanced reactor development, state-of-the-art modeling and simulation capabilities, and analysis of nuclear fuel cycle options and economics. Ongoing research includes the development of cleaner, safer, and economical next generation advanced reactors; small and micro-size reactors; high-fidelity multi-physics computation tools; evaluation of nuclear fuel cycle options to provide cost-competitive, waste-minimizing, and highly natural resource-saving nuclear energy systems to our nation; materials and criticality assessment for national nuclear safety and security; and promotion of nuclear energy systems to achieve net-zero emissions economy of the United States.

Focus Areas

• Design and analysis of advanced nuclear energy systems with various fuel forms and coolants
• Development of high-fidelity multi-physics reactor modeling and simulation tools
• Evaluation of nuclear fuel cycle options
• Economics assessment of nuclear energy systems and their role in evolving electricity markets
• Advanced reactor safeguards and security
• Maintenance of Argonne Reactor Computation (ARC) code suite

Capabilities

• Well-validated and documented fast reactor design and analysis computation suite, which have been used in various fast reactor development and licensing programs
• High-fidelity multi-physics tools for unstructured-meshed advanced reactor analysis
• Capabilities of advanced reactor core design, shielding analysis, criticality safety, radiation source term evaluation
• Nuclear fuel cycle evaluation and screening capabilities, including algorithms for nuclear fuel cycle economics analysis

Research Groups

• Methods Development
• Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems (ANES)
• Reactor and Fuel Cycle Analysis (RFCA)
• Nuclear Applications and Economics (NAE)