Simulation of Long-Term Fuelling Operations for the ACR-1000™

Abstract

The Advanced CANDU Reactor™¹ (ACR-1000™) features on-power refuelling, retaining a characteristic design feature from the traditional CANDU®² reactor. To confirm or predict important design parameters it is necessary to perform simulations of fuelling representative of station operation. Long-term fuelling simulations called 'core-follow' simulations are used to predict parameters such as channel power, bundle power, channel power peaking factor (CPPF) and burnup. To perform core-follow simulations for a reactor fuelled on-power a sustainable fuelling strategy must be developed. To this end, the methodology used to perform the core-follow simulations, and to develop fuelling selection criteria are detailed in this paper.