Microcomputer workstation for design analysis of PWR fuel loading patterns

The generation of fuel element loading patterns for light water power reactors that can be shown to meet cycle energy requirements, technical specifications for safety considerations, and cost constraints is a complex task which generally consumes considerable amounts of engineering and computer resources. This paper describes a software system that automates this procedure using a personal computer. This system is the Control Data Corporation's reload design workstation. The following topics are discussed: file management functions, modeling of new fuel types, initial pattern synthesis, generation of successive pattern iterations, end-of-cycle scoping, cycle depletion analysis, fuel economics, loading pattern performance index. The elimination of nearly all hand editing and file manipulation tasks considerably reduces the error rate and engineering time required for generation of the reload patterns.