CANDU Fuel Performance: Ontario Hydro Experience, Past, Present and Future

Abstract

Ontario Hydro has more than 170 reactor-years experience in operating CANDU reactors. Fuel performance has been excellent with more than 70,000 channel fueling operations successfully completed and 99. 9o/. of the more than 500,000 fuel bundles irradiated operating as designed. Fuel performance limits and fuel defects have had a negligible effect on station safety, reliability, the environment and cost. The actual incapability charged to fuel is less than 0.1% over the station's lifetimes, and more recently has been zero.