Finding optimal of the Egyptian second nuclear reactor core patterns using genetic algorithm

The second Egyptian research reactor ETRR-2 went critical on the 27th of November 1997. The National Center of Nuclear Safety and Radiation Control (NCNSRC) has the responsibility of the evaluation and the assessment of the safety of this reactor. Fuel management reloads for Egypt's second research reactor have been carried out according to the fuel management scheme suggested by the reactor designer (INVAP). The start up core consists of three different fuel types, while the equilibrium core has only one fuel type called standard fuel. The fuel management scheme consists in considering the core as being partitioned into eight zones. Each zone will correspond to a chain of fuel movements. In each fuel cycle two of these chains will be involved, in which eight fuel elements will be moved, from them two spent fuel elements will be extracted and two fresh fuel elements will be inserted in the core. In this paper we solve a model as a one big nonlinear multi objective discrete optimization problem using genetic algorithm. Results are compared with INVAP values. (authors)