Development of in-core fuel management scoping tools for PWR

This paper concerns with developing a simplified in-core fuel management scoping tool for PWR. For this purpose the point reactivity model is put into a fuel cycling decision code, FCYPRM. Modified Borresen's coarse-mesh diffusion theory and nodal expansion method are utilized to form a spatial neutron analysis code, CMSNAP. Numerical experiments are performed to determine a set of empirical shuffling rules for working out an automated fuel loading pattern search code, ALPS. The numerical examples are presented for verifying effectiveness and applicability of individual codes. By structuring and applying three codes for reload core design problem of a PWR, it is demonstrated that these codes provide an effective in-core fuel management scoping tool for PWR. (Author)