Options and trade-offs for in-core fuel management

The PWR fuel manager is faced with a number of options for improving in-core fuel management and associated fuel costs. Selecting these options involves both economic and physical trade-offs, the latter resulting from increased uranium enrichments and the requirements for thermal and loss-of-coolant-accident (LOCA) margins. In the future, when power reserves are diminished, these options must also compete for margin against proposed plant power upgrades. This paper provides an assessment of the benefits, trade-offs, and claims against margins for five major options: extended burnup, axial blankets, very low leakage shuffle schemes, burnable poisons, and scheduled coastdowns. It provides estimated cost savings as well as impacts on departure from nucleate boiling and (LOCA) margins