The assessment of nuclear energy systems asks for a modeling of the worldwide nuclear reactor park including all supply chain details, i.e. the nuclear fuel cycle, demands for an integrated nuclear energy system model which also includes feedback loops representing physical feedbacks within the system as well as, and most prominently, socio-political feedbacks in the decision-making on the various available deployment pathways for nuclear energy. Despite the availability since the early 1960s of detailed model-codes for nuclear reactors covering physic, supply chain and economic aspects of nuclear energy, development of a truly system dynamics view on nuclear energy development only recently gained worldwide interest.

This paper will bring an overview on the role of nuclear fuel cycle centres which have recently regained interest in the light of a perceived growing importance of nuclear energy in the world’s energy provision and the inherent proliferation concerns this might entail. Using the DANESS nuclear energy system dynamics code, ANL performs a comprehensive study on various nuclear energy deployment scenarios in six world-regions and the potential role that such regional nuclear fuel cycle centers may play in facilitating such nuclear development while respecting proliferation concerns. The paper will conclude by stressing the importance of a system dynamics perspective in addressing such nuclear energy system deployment scenarios.