Summary of the History of Improvement and Optimization of Fuel Management Strategies for Two 1000 MWe PWR Units

Abstract

This paper takes a certain nuclear power plant (NPP) which consists of two 1000 MWe PWR units as the research object, and summarizes various fuel management strategies experienced since it started commercial operation in 2002 and 2003. These fuel management strategies include: 1) high-leakage annual refueling, refueling fuel enrichment is 3.2% and cycle length reaches about 270 EFPD; 2) fuel type mixed refueling (AFA2G and AFA3G mixed), refueling fuel enrichment increases from 3.2% to 3.7% and cycle length reaches about 320 EFPD; 3) low-leakage 1/4 refueling, refueling fuel enrichment increases from 3.7% to 4.2% and cycle length reaches about 316 EFPD that fuel economy has been greatly improved; 4) low-leakage 18-months refueling, refueling fuel enrichment increases from 4.2% to 4.45% and the refueling cycle has been extended from annual refueling to an average of 16 months; 5) two-enrichment refueling, refueling fuel enrichment is extended from single 4.45% to two enrichment 4.45% and 4.00%, which improves the flexibility of fuel management to well meet the load shedding needs. This paper reviews each fuel management strategy’s general refueling pattern, main design parameters and actual operating parameters of the core, fuel economy and the feedback of related problems, finally further suggests a few optimizations of future fuel management strategies.