Multicycle PWR in-core fuel management through one-and-a-half-dimensional core modeling

The one-and-a-half-dimensional (1 and 1/2-D) model of a pressurized water reactor (PWR) core employs one-dimensional (1-D) diffusion calculation followed by a fast, few-step procedure to unfold the 1-D results into the two-dimensional (2-D) results. A computer code was developed based on that model. The initial benchmarking has shown the code to be almost as fast as a plain 1-D code and significantly faster than the analogous 2-D code (10 to 100 times for a typical problem). Yet, it provides results in 2-D form and better accuracy than the 1-D code. The model itself and the initial benchmarking were described in more detail elsewhere. The code has since been enhanced, and a multicycle analysis option has been implemented. This paper presents results of benchmarking the model using the actual data for three successive cycles of the Krsko nuclear power plant and complex low-leakage loading patterns.