Evaluation of Fuel Loading Pattern of PWR Core Using PWR-FUEL Code (Iman Kuntoro1,a), Surian Pinem1,b),Tagor Malem Sembiring2,c), Tukiran Surbakti1,d)

Abstract. 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
keff 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 keff 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.
Keyword: in-core fuel management, neutronic parameter, operation safety, PWR-FUEL