A novel channel selection method for CANDU refueling based on BPANN and GA technique

The fuel management calculation of CANDU reactor is commonly carried out every three days. It requires that the fuel management calculation should be finished within two or three hours. The selection of channels for refuelling is a challenging task for the fuelling engineer at a CANDU station. This activity is fairly time consuming and requires a considerable amount of experience, coupled to good judgement and intuition. Moreover, operating experience shows that it is very difficult to fully translate human decision processes into algorithms for a complete automation of the selection process. Therefore, an efficient refueling channel selection method is necessary. (author)