Core library for advanced scenario simulation, C.L.A.S.S.: principle & application
Résumé
The global warming, the increase of world population and the depletion of fossil resources
have lead us in a major energy crisis. Using electronuclear energy could be one of the means
to solve a part of these issues. The way out of this crisis may be enlightened by the study of
transitional scenarios, guiding the political decisions. The reliability of those studies passes
through the wide variety of the simulation tools and the comparison between them.
From this perspective and in order to perform complex electronuclear scenario simulation,
the open source Core Library for Advance Scenario Simulation (CLASS) is being developed.
CLASS main asset is its ability to include any kind of reactor, whether the system is innovative
or standard. A reactor is fully described by its evolution database that must contain a set of
different fuel compositions in order to simulate transitional scenarios. CLASS aims at being a
useful tool to study scenarios involving Generation IV reactors as well as innovative fuel cycles,
like the Thorium cycle.
The following contribution will present in detail the CLASS software. Starting with the working
principle of this tool, one will explain the working process of the different modules such
as the evolution module. It will be followed by an exhaustive presentation of the UOX-MOX
bases generation procedure. Finally a brief analysis of the error made by the CLASS evolution
module will be presented.