Evaluation of fuel loading pattern of PWR core using PWR-FUEL code

The in-core fuel management of a nuclear power plant is a problem of optimization of core parameters such as operation cycle, average fuel burnup and shut down margin for determining a fuel loading pattern to meet the safety and economic aspects. The study is aimed to obtain an optimal fuel loading pattern. Two models of fuel burn up calculations were taken namely equilibrium and transition cores burn up models. The calculations will be carried out by means of computer codes SRAC2006 for cell calculation and PWR-FUEL for the fuel management. The results of k_eff values at BOC and EOC for each transition core are approximately 1.05 as the input data and the core cycle length is found to be 330 days. The k_eff values at both BOC and EOC are very near to critical at equilibrium core and the core cycle length is found 360 days. The results of the calculation of neutron flux distribution and power density using the NODAL and FDM methods of the PWR-FUEL the code has the same results. From the results of the neutronic parameter, it is shown that the optimal loading pattern of PWR core can be determined by the PWR-FUEL code either with equilibrium core search or with transition core burnup models. Key words: fuel loading pattern, PWR-FUEL code, operation safety.