Nuclear Electric's requirements for fuel manufacture - an overview

This paper describes some of the background to the functional requirements which Nuclear Electric places on its fuel supplier. It starts with the principal technical criteria the fuel has to meet in terms of economics and safety, and indicates how these lead to a set of functional requirements for normal operation and design basis faults. Engineering and safety performance interfaces are developed which lead to the detailed design and manufacturing requirements on the fuel manufacture. The role of quality assurance (QA) in ensuring compliance with the design and manufacturing requirements is discussed and the paper concludes with a review of Nuclear Electric's fuel performance experience gained through operating this process. (author)