fuel management in candu reactors: RFSP code

The objective of in-core fuel management is to determine the required refuelling strategies for safe and reliable operation of the reactor with minimum total energy cost. CANDU reactors use natural uranium fuel and rely on semi-continuous on-power refuelling. For the purpose of fuel management, the CANDU core with 380 fuel channels is modelled dividing into inner-and outer core. Refuelling rate in the CANDU reactors is evaluated in three periods for the whole operating life: 1)From the initial core to refuelling onset (100-150 EFPD), 2) the intermediate period (400-500 EFPD), and 3)the equilibrium period (approximately 30 years). A channel in the CANDU-6 reactor contains 12 bundles, in the refuelling operation some bundles do not discharged, but are shifted to other place in the same channel. One of the methods used for selection the channel and determination the bundles to be discharged is simulation method one of which is the RFSP (reactor fuelling simulating program). RFSP is a computer programme to do neutronic calculations for CANDU reactors. It can calculate both static and time-dependent neutron flux and power distributions in the core. It is a modular program containing a lot of modules. RFSP can perform fuel-management calculations and simulate a reactor operating history at specified intervals, taking burnup steps and channel refuelling into account