Perturbation theory in nuclear fuel management optimization

Nuclear in-core fuel management involves all the physical aspects which allow optimal operation of the nuclear fuel within the reactor core. In most nuclear power reactors, fuel loading patterns which have a minimum power peak are economically desirable to allow the reactors to operate at the highest power density and to minimize the possibility of fuel failure. In this study, perturbation theory along with a binary fuel shuffling technique is applied to predict the effects of various core configurations, and hence, the optimization of in-core fuel management. The computer code FULMNT has been developed to shuffle the fuel assemblies in search of the lowest possible power peaking factor. An iteration approach is used in the search routine. A two-group diffusion theory method is used to obtain the power distribution for the iterations. A comparison of the results of this method with other methods shows that this approach can save computer time. The code also has a burnup capability which can be used to check power peaking throughout the core life