Statistical Analysis of Pellet Fabrication Data for Design Application

To improve margins against design limits for CANDU6 fuel rods evaluation, design data are revised based on the as-built data. A statistical analysis of pellet grain size and density was performed by analyzing the recent 5-year as-built data manufactured with strict quality control procedures. The statistical analysis of recent CANDU6 fuel pellet as-built data for grain size and density was performed. This is to apply as-built real data to enhance more margins to the CANDU6 fuel rods design. Statistical analysis results are valid unless the process and internal management criteria for determining the grain size and density of the pellet are changed. The CANDU6 fuel design of the Wolsong Power Plant can be applied with the statistical analysis results given in Table I and Table II. Further study will be performed for the statistical analysis of other manufacturing data affecting CANDU6 fuel rod performance.