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Method for Depleting BWRs Using Optimal Control Rod Patterns

Conference · · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society
OSTI ID:5979781
Control rod (CR) programming is an essential core management activity for boiling water reactors (BWRs). After establishing a core reload design for a BWR, CR programming is performed to develop a sequence of exposure-dependent CR patterns that assure the safe and effective depletion of the core through a reactor cycle. A time-variant target power distribution approach has been assumed in this study. The authors have developed OCTOPUS to implement a new two-step method for designing semioptimal CR programs for BWRs. The optimization procedure of OCTOPUS is based on the method of approximation programming and uses the SIMULATE-E code for nucleonics calculations.
Research Organization:
Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA (United States); Commonwealth Edison (ComEd), Chicago, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
OSTI ID:
5979781
Report Number(s):
CONF-910603--
Conference Information:
Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society Journal Volume: 63
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English