Analysis of fuel cycle options for selected AMR/SMR systems

Today, Large Language Models (LLM's) are offering unprecedented capabilities in many domains. Often, they are criticised for providing a mixture of accurate and valid information with so-called "hallucinations", presented side-by-side in a way that makes it difficult for a human to distinguish between valid and invalid information. In research and development, the starting point nearly invariably is a good command of the State-Of-The-Art, on the basis of which research questions can be formulated. It is tempting for the novice and for the seasoned researcher to be assisted by LLM's to accelerate the tedious work of ploughing through literature, to digest this and to come to a robust foundation for later work. This study aims at exploring capabilities and limitations of Large Language Models (LLM's) to digest a well-defined, public domain information package and to compare the outcome thereof with an exercise in which the same data package has been explored conventionally. 

In this study, the fuel cycle of selected AMR/SMR systems will be evaluated. The aim of this bibliographic study is to evaluate the fuel cycles of AMR/SMR concepts against their TRL, economic impact, industrial integration and applicability in the political and geopolitical context of several countries. The study will start with a brief sketch of the actual energy situation in selected countries and their expected evolution within the next decade.

The following questions will then be addressed:

• Which AMR/SMR concepts are expected to be implemented within the next ten years? How far is their licensing stage?

• Which fuel cycles are applicable to the selected AMR/SMR concepts?

• How far along is the industrial integration of these fuel cycles (e.g. availability)?

• Which political factors (e.g. reprocessing bans) are applicable to these fuel cycles?

• Which economic factors are applicable to these fuel cycles? What is the impact of a significant rise or drop of the uranium or enrichment price?

• Which geopolitical aspects are these fuel cycles subject to?

In addition to the bibliographic study, a metric will be proposed to enable a comparison of the fuel cycles. In principle, the selection of three countries will be used to make the study concrete.