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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Improving fuel-rod performance. [PWR; BWR]

Journal Article · · EPRI J.; (United States)
OSTI ID:6134338
To reduce the risk of fuel-rod failures, utilities operate their nuclear reactors within conservative limits on power increases proposed by nuclear-fuel vendors. Of particular concern to US utilities is that adopting these limits results in an industrywide average plant capacity loss of 3% in BWR designs and 0.3% in PWR designs. To replace lost BWR capacity by other generating means currently costs the utilities $150 million annually, and losses for PWRs are about $20 million. Efforts are therefore being made to identify the factors responsible for Zircaloy degradation under PCI condition and to improve nuclear-fuel-rod design and reactor operation.
OSTI ID:
6134338
Journal Information:
EPRI J.; (United States), Journal Name: EPRI J.; (United States) Vol. 6:2; ISSN EPRJD
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English