Determination of the Residual Power of the Fissionable Fuel by Modeling

The today's determination of residual power of nuclear fuel in containers bases on differential equations, which describe the creation and the destruction of nuclides in the fuel. The Nuclear Regulatory of Slovak Republic requires the verification of present methodology alternatively. The new methodology and achieved results in determination of residual power of spent nuclear fuel by temperature measuring of the container are described in this article. The solution bases on modeling and simulation: The container without fuel was heated by electrical resistant spirals with known electrical power, which simulates the residual power of the transported nuclear fuel. The temperature of defined points of the container’s surface and in environment was measured. The measured data were used for the design of the thermic mathematical model of the container. This model can be backwards used for the determination of the power of transported fuel in real container's operation.