A new computational system, ONUS, designed to calculate fuel performance related quantities using individual fuel rod power histories from a full core, cycle design, neutronic model, is presented. ONUS consists of coupling NNL’s ENIGMA-B fuel performance code with Studsvik’s core design and analysis package, CMS, as well as Studsvik’s automated core tracking reactivity management tool, CMSOps. Since CMSOps updates the CMS model automatically according to changes in actual plant operating data, detailed fuel rod power histories, reflecting the actual operation of the plant, can now be used directly in the fuel performance assessment.
Using this capability, ONUS allows detailed fuel performance analyses for every fuel rod in the reactor core for reload core design analyses as well as during actual reactor operations. This directly addresses emerging issues related to fuel performance, e.g., initiative for zero fuel failures by the year 2010 (Zero-10), directly. The computational burden of performing such detailed fuel performance for every fuel rod in the core, as well as managing the enormous volume of data involved, is addressed seamlessly via a hosted solution with an intelligent GUI for the end user.
